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DEMOCRATIC 
INDUSTRY 

A  Practical  Study  in  Social  History 


BY 

JOSEPH  HUSSLEIN,  SJ.,   Ph.D. 

ASSOCIATE    EDITOR   OF   "AMERICA,"    LECTURER 
FORDHAM    UNIVERSITY    SCHOOL   OF    SOCI- 
OLOGY, AUTHOR  OF  "  THE  WORLD 
PROBLEM,"     ETC.,    ETC. 


NEW  YORK 

P.  J.  KENEDY  &  SONS 
1919 


Jmpnmi  I^oteot: 

JOSEPHUS  H.  ROCKWELL,  S.J. 

Propositus  Prov.  Marylandice  Neo-Eboracensis 

JI9t|)tI  2D&0tat: 

ARTHURUS  T.  SCANLAN,  S.T.D. 

Censor  Librorum 

Imprimatur : 

>i<PATRICIUS  J.  HAYES,  D.D. 

Archiepiscopus  Neo-Eboracensis 

Neo-Eboraci 
die  14,  Oilohris,  1919 


COPYRIGHT-IQig 
BY   P  •  J  •  KENEDY    &    SONS 

PKINTED  IN  U-S-A 


CONTENTS' 


CHAPTER  PACK 

Preface vii 

I.   Egyptian  Labor  Unions  ....  i 

II.  Greek  and   Roman  Trade  Unions  io 

III.  Politics  and  Violence    ....  i8 

IV.  State  Paternalism  and  Slavery    .  26 
V.   From  Servitude  to  Freedom     .      .  37 

VI.   Recasting  the  World      ....  47 

VII.   Serfdom  and  the  Church    ...  56 

VIII.   The  Feudal  and  Manorial  Systems  68 

IX.    Peace  Gilds 79 

X.   Labor    under    Charlemagne    and 

After 89 

XI.   Origin  of  Medieval  Gilds  .     .     .  102 

XII.   Merchant  Gilds no 

XIII.  A  Scotch  Merchant  Gild    .     .     .  125 

XIV.  Economics,  Religion  and   Charity  135 
XV.   A  Fifteenth  Century  Gild       .     .  146 

XVI.   First  Christian  Trade  Unions      .  157 
XVII.   The    World's    Greatest    Labor 

Movement 165 

XVIII.   True  Industrial  Democracy     .     .  175 

XIX.   Live  and  Let  Live 185 

XX.   The  Golden  Rule  Applied  ...  195 

XXL   Learning  a  Trade 206 

XXII.   The    First   Modern   Labor  Class  220 

XXIII.   Revaluation  of  the  Middle  Ages  237 

V 


VI  CONTENTS 

XXIV.   Civic  Pageants  and  Plays   .     .     .  248 
XXV.   The  Church  and  the  People    .     .  260 
XXVI.   Catholics  AND  Political  Democracy  270 
XXVII.   Modern   Catholic    Gild    Program  285 
XXVIII.   The  Great  Catastrophe      .     .     .  294 
XXIX.  Triumph     of    Workingmen's    Co- 
operatives       311 

XXX.   Modern  Industrial  Democracy  322 

A  Catholic  Social  Platform    .     .  345 


PREFACE 

BASED  upon  historic  facts,  the  present  vol- 
ume is  purely  constructive  in  its  nature. 
It  applies  the  acid  test  of  experience  to 
the  great  social  issues  and  closes  with  a  definite 
program  of  practical  social  action. 

Thoughtful  men  are  daily  realizing  more  fully 
that  the  only  economic  bulwark,  to  safeguard  the 
domestic  peace  of  the  nations  is  the  establishment 
of  a  true  democracy  in  our  industrial  life.  The 
task  of  the  writer  has  been  to  show  how  signally 
the  ancient  pagan  civilizations  failed  in  this  re- 
gard at  the  very  height  of  their  artistic  achieve- 
ments and  national  prosperity.  With  the  aid  of 
the  Church,  labor  rose  from  slavery  to  serfdom, 
and  from  serfdom  to  democratic  industry.  These 
developments  are  carefully  traced  and  the  causes 
which  interrupted  this  progress  explained  by  the 
author.  Abundant  documentary  evidence  is  of- 
fered, together  with  frequent  citations  gathered 
from  the  most  impartial  and  reliable  sources. 

The  last  few  centuries  immediately  preceding 
the  World  War,  viewed  from  the  standpoint  of 
democratic  industry,  may  rightly  be  called  the 
Dark  Ages,  in  an  economic  and  social  sense.     This 


Vlll  PREFACE 

Statement,  which  might  once  have  been  received 
with  incredulous  astonishment,  is  a  truism  in  our 
day.  Within  them  took  place  the  full  growth  and 
unhampered  evolution  of  that  unrestricted  concen- 
tration of  wealth  which  contained,  as  all  can  now 
readily  perceive,  the  seeds  of  social  anarchy.  It 
was  not  necessary,  then,  to  delay  upon  these  other- 
wise than  to  show  the  nature  and  reason  of  their 
failure. 

The  aim  of  society  must  be  to  promote  the  pub- 
lic good,  and  not  a  mere  deceptive  national  pros- 
perity absorbed  by  a  privileged  few.  The  au- 
thor's main  purpose,  therefore,  was  to  point  out 
the  ideal  to  be  followed  in  a  true  conception  of 
democratic  industry. 

From  another  point  of  view  the  argument  for 
the  present  volume  was  thus  stated  years  ago  by 
a  writer  in  the  London  Month: 

"  Whilst  a  certain  amount  of  negative  criticism 
of  Socialism  and  other  theories  cannot  be  dis- 
pensed with,  most  of  our  attention  must  be  given 
to  the  expounding  of  positive  doctrine.  Work- 
ingmen  are  much  more  likely  to  be  impressed  by 
knowing  what  the  Church  advocates  than  by  know- 
ing what  she  condemns.  They  will  grasp  all  this 
the  more  readily  and  thoroughly  if  it  is  placed 
in  its  historic  setting,  if  they  learn  something  of 
what  the  Church  has  done  in  the  past  for  society 
in  general  and  the  working  class  in  particular."  ^ 

1  H.  Somerville,  Jan.,  1913. 


PREFACE  IX 

The  book,  it  is  hoped,  will  serve  as  a  text  in  so- 
cial history  as  well  as  a  volume  for  popular  cir- 
culation. False  history  has  been  made  the  basis 
of  false  social  philosophy.  We  must  first  cor- 
rect these  distorted  views  before  we  can  hope  to 
lead  the  masses  aright  towards  the  attainment 
of  the  ideals  which  all  true  men  will  gladly  follow. 

Of  particular  importance  is  the  extensive  chap- 
ter on  Modern  Industrial  Democracy,  with  its 
many  examples  showing  the  nature  and  growth 
of  the  new  democratic  movement  in  industry,  and 
pointing  out  its  rightful  development. 


DEMOCRATIC  INDUSTRY 


DEMOCRATIC 
INDUSTRY 

CHAPTER    I 

EGYPTIAN  LABOR  UNIONS 

WE  can  well  imagine  the  existence  of  labor 
organizations  centuries  before  the 
building  of  the  pyramids.  The  nat- 
ural longing  after  fellowship  and  the  advantages 
of  association  between  members  of  the  same  class 
or  craft  was  almost  certain  to  have  exercised  its 
influence,  under  one  form  or  another,  unless  hin- 
dered by  positive  restrictions.  The  first  historic 
references  to  trade  unionism  are,  however,  very 
vague  and  shadowy.  As  a  legalized  institution 
it  is  believed  to  have  taken  its  origin  almost 
simultaneously  in  Egypt,  Greece  and  Italy,  some 
six  or  seven  centuries  before  Christ.  The  three 
great  leaders  mentioned,  respectively,  as  its  found- 
ers in  these  different  countries  are  the  Egyptian 
ruler  Amasis,  the  Greek  law-giver  Solon,  and 
the  second  legendary  king  of  Rome,  Numa 
Pompilius. 

Communities  of  craftsmen  are  mentioned  in  the 
Old  Testament.     Such  were  "  the  families  of  them 


2.  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

that  wrought  fine  linen  in  the  House  of  oaths,'* 
such,  too,  were  the  potters  of  King  David,  or 
one  of  his  successors,  who  settled  in  Netaim  and 
Gedera.*  But  no  special  reference  is  made  to 
any  developed  trade  organization.  Yet  owing  to 
religious  influences  labor  was  held  in  far  higher 
respect  among  the  Jews  of  the  Old  Dispensation 
than  among  any  of  the  other  great  Eastern  nations 
of  antiquity,  whose  stupendous  monuments  were 
erected  at  the  cost  of  untold  human  misery,  of 
blood  and  stripes  and  grinding  oppression. 

In  Egypt  King  Amasis,  it  is  stated,  considered 
the  formation  of  legalized  trade  unions  a  necessity 
for  obtaining  an  accurate  knowledge  of  the  number 
of  his  subjects  and  of  their  means  of  support. 
However  this  may  be,  we  find  that  in  course  of 
time  a  systematic  division  of  craftsmen  into  State 
corporations  was  established  with  a  thoroughness 
unsurpassed  in  the  imperial  days  of  Prussia. 
Each  trade  had  its  own  appointed  chief  or  its 
head-men,  whose  duty  it  was  to  maintain  the  in- 
terests of  the  craft  and  to  represent  it  before  the 
public  authorities.  Laborers  employed  in  the 
same  crafts  were  quartered  in  the  same  sections 
of  the  city,  or  at  least  worked  in  shops  located 
together  along  the  same  streets. 

The  paternal  interest  of  the  Government  in 
the  trade  of  its  citizens  was  in  great  part  to  be 
accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  besides  a  poll  tax 

^I  Paralip.  iv:i4,  21,  23. 


EGYPTIAN    LABOR   UNIONS  3 

and  a  house  tax,  the  laborer  was  also  obliged 
to  pay  a  trade  tax.  These  levies,  it  was  under- 
stood, could  be  obtained  from  him  only  after  a 
vigorous  application  of  the  collector's  rod.  His 
organization  would  therefore  prove  an  invaluable 
aid  in  directing  the  Government  in  its  work,  of 
wringing  from  the  laborer  the  hard-earned  product 
of  his  toil.  Doubtless  it  likewise  had  its  eco- 
nomic advantages  for  the  worker,  but  they  could 
hardly  have  been  more  than  to  save  him  at  times 
from  bonds,  stripes  or  starvation.  The  stelae 
of  the  little  town  of  Abydos  still  record  for  us  to- 
day the  names  of  the  labor  representatives  of  all 
the  various  trades  that  flourished  along  its  busy 
streets  millenniums  ago,  from  the  head-mason, 
Didiu,  to  the  master-shoemaker,  Kahikhonti. 

We  are  particularly  fortunate  also  in  possessing 
a  detailed  description  of  labor  conditions  in  ancient 
Egypt  from  the  hand  of  one  of  its  own  con- 
temporary poets.  A  translation  of  his  verses  was 
made  into  French  by  the  famous  Egyptologist  G. 
Maspero,^  whose  researches  are  applied  in  the 
present  article.  Though  depicting  in  striking  and 
realistic  language  the  misery  of  labor,  the  poet's 
attitude  is  one  of  cynicism  rather  than  of  profound 
human  sympathy.  Like  all  Egyptians  of  his  class, 
from  the  haughty  ruler  to  the  snobbish  scribe,  he 
had  been  brought  up  to  despise  the  manual  worker. 
Yet  the  different  types  of  artisans  are  made  to 

«  "  History  of  Egypt,"  II,  pp.  98-102. 


4  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

Stand  out  before  us  in  his  verse  more  vividly  and 
with  more  minute  realism  of  detail  than  even  in 
the  sculptures  and  paintings  of  this  remarkable 
race.  We  behold  there  the  metal  worker,  his  fin- 
gers "  rugged  as  the  crocodile  ";  the  stonecutter, 
who  knows  no  rest  until  his  arms  drop  from 
weariness,  but  who  is  cruelly  bound  in  a  cramped, 
unnatural  position  should  he  chance  to  "  remain 
sitting  at  sunrise";  the  barber  who  runs  from 
street  to  street  seeking  custom,  "  and  when  he  falls 
to  and  eats,  it  is  without  sitting  down  " ;  the  ar- 
tisan, with  his  chisel,  who  labors  at  timber  or 
metal  all  the  day  and  "  at  night  works  at  home  by 
the  lamp  ";  or  the  mason  dragging  huge  blocks  of 
stone,  *'  ten  cubits  by  six,"  who  is  *'  much  and 
dreadfully  exhausted,"  and  when  the  work  is  fin- 
ished returns  home,  "  if  he  has  bread,"  only  to 
find  that  his  children  have  been  beaten  mercilessly 
in  his  absence. 

With  barely  the  scantiest  covering  for  their 
poor,  wasted  bodies,  the  workers  shiver  in  the 
wind  or  swelter  in  the  broiling  sun.  But  their 
comrades,  confined  in  the  workshops,  enjoy  no 
better  fate.  In  verses  out-moderning  the  mod- 
erns the  old  Egyptian  bard  continues  his  picture 
of  hopeless  toil,  implying  in  a  mere  allusion  the 
whole  hidden  history  of  the  bitter  lot  of  woman 
beneath  this  galling  yoke  of  paganism: 

The  weaver  within  doors  is  worse  off  than  a 
woman;  squatting,  his  knees  against  his  chest, 


EGYPTIAN    LABOR    UNIONS  5 

he  does  not  breathe. 

If  during  the  day  he  slackens  weaving, 

he  is  bound  fast  as  the  lotuses  of  the  lake; 

and  it  is  by  giving  bread  to  the  door-keeper, 

that  the  latter  permits  him  to  see  the  light. 

The  dyer,  his  fingers  reeking  — 
and  their  smell  is  that  of  fish-spawn  — 
toils,  his  two  eyes  oppressed  with  fatigue, 
his  hand  does  not  stop, 

and  as  he  speeds  his  time  in  cutting  out  cloth, 
he  has  a  hatred  of  garments. 

The  shoemaker  is  very  unfortunate; 
he  moans  ceaselessly, 

his  health  is  the  health  of  the  spawning  fish, 
and   he    gnaws   the    leather. 

The  baker  makes  dough, 
subjects  the  loaves  to  the  fire; 
while  his  head  is  inside  the  oven, 
his  son  holds  him  by  the  legs; 
if  he  slips  from  the  hands  of  his  son, 
he  falls  there  into  the  flames. 

In  vain  shall  we  look  for  any  understanding  of 
democracy  among  the  pagan  Oriental  nations. 
Least  of  all  may  we  hope  to  find  it  in  their  con- 
ception and  treatment  of  labor. 

Yet  trade  organizations  were  never  more  com- 
prehensively developed  than  under  this  govern- 
ment absolutism.  On  the  testimony  of  the 
Greeks,  even  professional  robbers  had  their  own 
trade  corporations,  with  duly  accredited  repre- 
sentatives at  police  headquarters.  Their  task  was 
to  "  discuss  the   somewhat  delicate  questions  to 


6  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

which  the  practice  of  their  trade  gave  rise,"  and 
to  fix  the  ransom  to  be  paid  for  any  stolen  article, 
which  then  was  invariably  returned  to  its  owner: 
an  institution  equally  convenient  for  police  and 
citizens  and  the  honest  and  honorable  order  of 
Egyptian  highwaymen.^ 

We  may  here  advert  in  passing  to  similar  gilds 
of  even  the  most  disreputable  occupations,  that  ex- 
isted among  the  Turks  in  Bagdad  under  the  early 
Sultans.  Pocket  thieves  and  others  of  their  kith 
paid  a  stipulated  sum  to  the  police  for  the  un- 
hampered exercise  of  their  trade  on  certain  oc- 
casions; but  wo  to  them  if  they  were  neverthe- 
less caught  in  the  act !  A  double  penalty  was  then 
exacted  of  them.  It  is  of  further  interest  to  know 
that  they  belonged  to  the  same  general  gild  as  the 
police  officials.*  While  this  appeals  to  our  sense 
of  the  ludicrous,  it  may  be  well  to  look  nearer 
home.  The  legalizing  of  modern  profiteering  in- 
terests, we  might  gently  hint,  for  instance,  is  an 
even  worse  recognition  of  organized  robbery  car- 
ried on  upon  a  far  larger  scale. 

Labor  organizations  have  just  one  lesson  to 
learn  from  the  Egyptian  labor  gilds  or  trade 
unions.  It  is  the  danger  of  undue  State  intru- 
sion which  in  modern  as  in  ancient  life  is  bound 

•  Ibid.,  p.  97. 

*  Kosta   Nikoloff,   "  Das   Handtverk  und  Zunftiuesen   in  Bul- 
garien  wdhrend  der  turkischen  Herrschaft,  etc.,"  pp.  53,  54. 


EGYPTIAN    LABOR   UNIONS  7 

always  to  end  in  tyranny.  It  is  very  simple  for 
labor  to  hand  over  to  the  State,  whether  capi- 
talistic or  communistic,  its  hard-gained  liberties. 
But  this  once  accomplished  —  aside  from  a  pass- 
ing crisis  where  liberties  are  surrendered  for  a 
time  in  the  interest  of  patriotism  —  it  will  there- 
after be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  regain  them. 
Given  the  little  finger,  the  State  will  lay  hold  on 
the  entire  body.  There  is  a  reasonable  State  con- 
trol and  a  reasonable  State  ownership  within 
proper  limits.  These  may  be  extended  as  far  as 
the  common  good  requires,  but  no  further.  To 
transfer  to  the  State  the  entire  means  of  produc- 
tion is  for  labor  to  place  its  head  in  the  lion's 
mouth.  Gracious  as  the  lion  may  appear,  com- 
pared with  the  Egyptian  crocodile,  the  laborer  is 
wise  in  not  entrusting  his  head  to  either,  but  in 
securing  and  maintaining  his  own  liberty.  Capi- 
talism, enforced  communism  and  general  State  So- 
cialism alike  exclude  him  from  a  reasonable  per- 
sonal ownership. 

"Away  from  the  servile  State!  "  must  be  his 
cry.  Whether  the  means  of  production,  on  which 
his  livelihood  and  liberty  depend,  are  in  the  hands 
of  a  capitalistic  regime  or  a  communistic  bureau- 
cracy will  matter  little  in  the  end.  There  is  but 
one  way  towards  freedom,  popular  prosperity  and 
democratic  industry,  and  that,  as  was  pointed  out 
at  the  very  conclusion  of  the  World  War  by  the 


8  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

Catholic  Episcopacy  in  America,  lies  in  bringing 
about  a  social  reconstruction  in  which  the  major- 
ity shall  attain  to  a  personal  ownership  and  con- 
trol, wholly  or  in  part,  of  the  means  of  production. 
This  must  be  our  ultimate  aim. 

"  The  majority  must  somehow  become  owners, 
or  at  least  in  part,  of  the  instruments  of  produc- 
tion," was  the  final  word  of  the  Bishops  of  the 
United  States  speaking  through  the  Administrative 
Committee  of  their  National  War  Council.^  The 
education  suggested  as  necessary  to  reach  this  stage 
was  the  establishment  and  management  by  labor 
of  cooperative  productive  societies  and  copartner- 
ship arrangements.  In  the  former  the  workers 
will  themselves  own  and  manage  the  industries, 
in  the  latter  they  are  to  have  a  substantial  share 
in  the  corporate  stock  and  a  reasonable  share  in 
the  management.  "  However  slow  the  attain- 
ment of  these  ends,  they  will  have  to  be  reached 
before  we  can  have  a  thoroughly  efficient  system 
of  production."  Here,  therefore,  is  the  moun- 
tain of  vision  the  American  Bishops  pointed  out, 
where  alone  industrial  peace  and  social  justice  can 
be  attained  and  where  popular  prosperity  shall 
flourish  for  all,  provided  that  the  code  of  Sinai 
is  not  forgotten  nor  the  charity  of  Christ.  Labor 
must  yield  up  its  desire  of  a  maximum  wage  for  a 
minimum  service  and  capital  must  remember  that: 
"  The  laborer's  right  to  a  decent  livelihood  is  the 

^ "  Social    Reconstruction,"    Reconstruction    Pamphlet    No.    i, 
Jan.,  1919. 


EGYPTIAN    LABOR    UNIO.NS  9 

first  moral  charge  upon  Industry,"  preceding  all 
rights  of  the  employer  to  profits,  aside  from  the 
latter's  own  reasonable  living.  And  neither  may 
neglect  the  interests  of  the  consumer. 


CHAPTER     II 

GREEK  AND  ROMAN  TRADE  UNIONS 

MORE  interesting  than  strictly  historical 
is  the  description  Plutarch  has  left  us  of 
the  origin  of  the  Roman  labor  gilds, 
which  he  attributes  to  Numa  Pompilius.^  To 
blend  together  by  common  interests  the  racial  fac- 
tions in  the  newly  founded  city  of  Rome,  and  so 
to  end  the  deadly  party  strifes  between  the  Sa- 
bines  and  the  Romans  within  the  same  walls,  the 
politic  ruler  is  said  to  have  devised  a  plan  of  di- 
viding the  citizens  into  groups  according  to  their 
arts  and  crafts. 

The  distinct  craft  gilds  mentioned  by  this  his- 
torian as  founded  during  the  reign  of  Numa  are 
eight  in  number.  A  ninth  was  added  into  which 
were  gathered  all  the  remaining  trades.  Depart- 
ing somewhat  from  the  customary  interpretation 
of  the  Greek  text,  we  may  classify  the  eight  Ro- 
man craft  gilds  as  follows:  i.  flute  players,  2. 
goldsmiths,  3.  builders,  4.  dyers,  5.  tailors,  6. 
tanners,  7.  coppersmiths,  8.  potters.  That  all 
these  trades  existed  in  a  specialized  form  at  this 
early  period,  about  the  seventh  century  before  our 
era,  is  seriously  to  be  questioned.     Other  employ- 

1  Plutarch,  "  Numa,"  17. 

10 


GREEK  AND   ROMAN   TRADE    UNIO.NS  II 

ments,  moreover,  which  probably  were  then  of 
greater  importance,  are  not  at  all  mentioned. 

One  thing  alone  is  historically  certain:  that  a 
century  before  Christ  trade  unions  existed  at 
Rome  which  in  the  popular  mind  dated  back  to 
time  immemorial.  These  ancient  unions  were  re- 
garded with  special  respect  by  the  Romans  so 
that  they  outlived  the  laws  which  proved  fatal  to 
other  organizations.  According  to  a  method  suf- 
ficiently common  at  a  period  when  historic  criti- 
cism was  not  too  exacting,  the  origin  of  the  labor 
gilds  was  naturally  ascribed  to  the  rather  mythi- 
cal Numa  Pompilius  to  whom  Rome  was  said  to 
be  indebted  for  other  important  public  institutions. 
For  similar  reasons,  doubtless,  the  Roman  labor 
organizations  were  attributed  by  Florus  to  Ser- 
vius  Tullius,  the  sixth  legendary  King  of  Rome.^ 

Of  the  eight  craft  gilds  enumerated  by  Plutarch 
three  only  are  spoken  of  by  various  Roman  his- 
torians as  incorporated  in  the  Constitution  of  Ser- 
vius  Tullius:  the  builders,  the  coppersmiths,  and 
the  flute-players  or  horn-blowers.  Whatever 
prominence  may  for  a  time  have  been  given  to 
these  labor  gilds,  some  centuries  before  the  Chris- 
tian era,  was  due  to  their  eminent  usefulness  to 
the  Romans  as  a  military  nation.^  The  members 
of  the  remaining  gilds  not  mentioned  in  connec- 

2  Florus,  I,  6,  3. 

'  Etienne   Martin   Saint-Leon,  "  Histoire  des  Corporations  de 
Metiers"  pp.  3-5. 


12  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

tion  with  these  laws  were  evidently  classed  accord- 
ing to  the  wealth  which  they  individually  pos- 
sessed, or  more  probably  did  not  possess.  Such 
was  the  sole  criterion  of  this  Constitution.  They 
soon  found  their  place  in  the  lowest  stratum  of  the 
social  layers  and  were  without  political  significance. 
As  artisans  they  were  held  in  utter  contempt  by 
the  classic  pagan  world.  Such  we  find  is  the  atti- 
tude assumed  towards  the  craftsman  throughout 
the  entire  range  of  Roman  literature.  "  The  la- 
borers are  all  engaged  in  a  base  occupation,"  says 
Cicero,  "  nor  can  there  be  anything  honorable  to 
a  freeman  in  a  workshop."  * 

Shortly  after  the  period  to  which  tradition  as- 
cribed the  beginning  of  the  gild  system  in  Rome, 
Solon  (born  in  638  B.  c.)  introduced  his  sweep- 
ing reforms  in  Greece.  They  completely  changed 
the  conditions  of  capital  and  labor  at  Athens. 
The  poor  had  there  been  ground  down  to  such 
utter  destitution  and  misery  that  they  sold  their 
very  sons  and  daughters,  and  lastly,  even  their 
own  bodies  into  slavery  to  the  masters  of  bread, 
in  whose  hands  were  the  keys  of  wealth.  In  this 
stress  of  popular  despair,  which  threatened  to 
culminate  in  a  bloody  revolution,  rich  and  poor 
alike  chose  Solon  for  their  archon.  Unlimited 
power  was  conferred  on  him  to  introduce  what- 
ever economic  and  constitutional  reforms  might  be 
needed.     As   a   consequence   the   law  which   re- 

*  Cicero,  "  De  Officiis,"  I,  42,  150. 


GREEK  AND  ROMAN   TRADE    UNIO.NS  1 3 

duced  the  laborer  to  slavery  in  lieu  of  the  payment 
of  his  debt  was  abrogated.  He  was  given  the 
right  to  vote,  although  he  could  not  himself  be 
elected  to  office,  and  was  ranked  in  the  fourth 
class  of  citizens.  Slight  as  such  benefits  may  seem 
to  us,  they  were  regarded  as  a  great  boon  in  their 
day.  A  Greek  fourth  estate  had  thus  been 
created. 

To  Solon  likewise  is  ascribed  by  Gaius  the  Ath- 
enian law,  considered  as  the  charter  of  subsequent 
trade  unions,  which  permitted  the  organization  of 
societies,  provided  they  were  not  hostile  to  the 
State.  The  Roman  law  engraved  upon  the 
Twelve  Tables,  which  granted  this  same  privilege, 
is  regarded  by  Gaius  as  only  a  translation  of  the 
Solonic  legislation.  Sed  haec  lex  videtur  ex  lege 
Solonis  translata  esse.^ 

The  gilds  were  in  Rome  commonly  called  col- 
legia, in  Greece  eranoi  and  thiasoi.  Other  names 
were  likewise  in  use,  but  all  these  appellations,  like 
the  English  equivalent,  "  gild,"  were  applied  to 
societies  of  almost  every  variety.  While  little 
is  known  of  the  statutes  of  the  Greek  labor  organ- 
izations in  particular,  the  constitutions  and  cus- 
toms of  the  gilds  in  general  are  perfectly  familiar 
to  us.  We  reproduce  a  description  from  a  mono- 
graph study  by  H.  Tompkins  which  comprises  the 
salient  characteristics  of  the   Greek  association. 

5  Gaius,   Fourth   Book   on   the   Laws   of   the   Twelve   Tables. 
Digest  XLVII,  Tit.,  22,  "  De  Collegiis  et  Corporibus." 


14  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

It  Is  not,  of  course,  to  be  presumed  that  each  of 
the  details  here  given  was  to  be  found  in  every 
instance. 

Let  us  now  consider  what  these  companies  were  which  are 
called  by  the  name  of  eranoi  and  thiasoi,  and  of  which  the  in- 
scriptions have  revealed  the  number  and  importance.  They 
were  formed  of  members  who  met  together  to  sacrifice  to 
certain  divinities  and  to  celebrate  their  festivals  in  common; 
besides  this  they  assisted  those  members  who  fell  into  neces- 
sitous circumstances,  and  provided  for  their  funerals.  They 
were  at  once  religious  associations  and  friendly  societies. 
Sometimes  they  daringly  partook  of  a  political  and  commercial 
character.  These  private  corporations,  recognized  by  the  State, 
had  their  presiding  and  other  officers,  their  priests,  their  funds 
supplied  by  the  contributions  of  members  and  the  liberality 
of  benefactors.  They  assembled  in  their  sanctuaries  and  made 
decrees.  They  were  found  in  great  numbers  in  the  important 
cities,  and  especially  in  the  maritime  ones.  At  Rhodes,  for 
example,  they  were  the  Companions  of  the  Sun,  the  Sons  of 
Bacchus,  of  Minerva  LIndienne,  of  Jupiter  Atagyrius,  of 
Jupiter  Soter.^ 

Although  the  reality  was  not  always  as  idyllic 
as  this  picture  represents  it,  and  a  statue  of  a  god 
was  usually  sufficient  to  constitute  the  sanctuary, 
if  we  may  so  call  their  locals,  yet  the  idea  of  a 
perfect  Greek  gild  is  here  sufficiently  expressed. 
Greater  stress  might,  however,  be  placed  upon 
the  convivial  nature  of  the  banquets,  which  in  the 
latter  state  of  Greek  and  Roman  society  may  al- 
most have  been  the  principal  reason  for  the  exis- 
tence of  such  associations,  and  probably  consisted 
in  wild  debauches  and  orgies.     Political  intrigues, 

«  H.  Tompkins,  "  Friendly  Societies  of  Antiquity." 


GREEK   AND   ROMAN    TRADE    UNIO.NS  1 5 

as  we  shall  see,  were  frequently  a  prime  motive. 
How  closely  the  trade  gilds  approximated  to  the 
description  here  given  it  is  difficult  to  say,  yet 
they  were  doubtlessly  conformed,  as  far  as  pos- 
sible, to  the  general  gild  ideal  of  their  time. 

It  is  to  Rome,  however,  that  we  must  turn  for  a 
complete  and  systematic  development  of  craft  and 
merchant  gilds.  The  inscriptions  dealing  with 
them  are  countless  in  number  and  amazing  in 
their  variety.  Almost  every  division  of  trade 
seemed  to  possess  its  union.  Tarruntenus  Pa- 
ternus,  who  was  Prefect  of  the  Imperial  Guard  in 
179,  enumerates  thirty  crafts  which  were  espe- 
cially privileged  by  the  Government.  Yet  he  men- 
tions such  trades  only  as  were  connected  with  mili- 
tary works.  It  is  commonly  accepted  that  each 
of  the  occupations  enumerated,  mensores,  medici, 
etc.,  was  represented  by  a  union.'^  Constantine  in 
337  extended  special  privileges  to  thirty-five  trade 
corporations. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  a  grouping  similar 
to  that  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  likewise  observed 
at  Rome,  as  in  Egypt  and  elsewhere.  The  potters 
occupied  the  Esquiline,  the  silk-workers  and  per- 
fumers were  settled  in  Tuscan  Street,  the  oil-deal- 
ers and  cheese-mongers  had  their  booths  in  Vala- 
brum,  and  the  silversmiths  and  tanners  were 
located  beyond  the  Tiber. 

'^ Tarruntenus  Paternus,  "Liber  Primus  Militarium."  Dig. 
L.,  6,  7.  Liebenam,  "  Zur  Geschichte  und  Organisation  des 
Romischen  Vereinsiuesen,"  p.  4S. 


1 6  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

As  in  the  Middle  Ages,  so  here  also  streets 
or  sections  of  the  city  were  often  named  after  the 
tradesmen  and  merchants  who  displayed  their 
wares  in  them.  Thus  we  have  Perfumers'  Street, 
Harness-makers'  Street,  Corn-venders'  Row,  and 
Sandal  Street.  In  the  latter  Apollo  Sandaliarius, 
or  Apollo  of  the  Sandal-makers,  had  his  shrine. 

The  ancient  Roman  gilds  were,  according  to 
general  custom,  placed  under  the  special  guard- 
ianship of  some  divinity.  While  merchants  nat- 
urally turned  to  Mercury,  the  craftsmen  most  fre- 
quently dedicated  their  gilds  to  Minerva,  the  god- 
dess of  the  arts.  Ovid  in  particular  tells  of  the 
many  various  classes  of  workingmen  and  women 
who  assisted  in  great  throngs  at  the  celebration  of 
her  feast.^  The  gilds,  as  we  have  seen,  at  times 
made  the  temples  of  a  god  their  meeting  places. 
Thus  the  merchant  gild  described  by  Livy,  which 
met  in  the  temple  of  Mercury,  took  for  its  feast 
the  anniversary  of  the  temple's  dedication.  The 
same  author  writes  of  a  gild  of  flute-players,  who 
went  upon  a  strike  because  the  censors  forbade 
them  to  hold  their  banquets  in  the  temple  of  Jupi- 
ter at  Rome,  as  had  been  their  custom  from  the 
earliest  times.  In  great  indignation  they  left  the 
capitol  in  a  body  and  betook  themselves  to  another 
city,  where  they  were  well  received.  But  when 
they  had  celebrated  their  feast,  and  were  deep 
under  the  influence  of  Bacchus,  oblivious  of  their 

8  Ovid,  "Fast.,"  Ill,  308  ff.,  819-832. 


GREEK   AND  ROMAN   TRADE    UNIONS  l^ 

cares  and  grievances,  the  citizens  cast  them  to- 
gether into  a  cart  and  so  returned  them  to  Rome. 
There  a  reconciliation  took  place. ^  Liebenam  re- 
fers to  other  classic  authors  who  have  different 
versions  of  the  same  story,  but  it  serves  at  all 
events  to  illustrate  existing  conditions. 

Roman  labor  gilds  were  not  to  mark  any  final 
progress  towards  a  more  democratic  conception 
whether  of  industry  or  politics.  The  reasons  for 
their  absolute  and  pitiable  failure  will  be  made 
plain  in  the  following  chapters. 

•Livy,  IX,  30. 


CHAPTER    III 

POLITICS  AND  VIOLENCE 

NEITHER  during  the  Republic  nor  dur- 
ing the  Empire  was  it  ever  the  intention 
of  the  Roman  law  to  interfere  with  pure 
labor  unions.  But  unfortunately  the  economic 
purpose  of  these  institutions  was  too  frequently 
forgotten  by  the  gildsmen  themselves  and  their 
political  influence  or  physical  mob-power  was  sold 
to  the  most  unworthy  demagogues  or  venal 
politicians,  in  return  for  immediate  bribes,  profits 
or  assurances.  The  proper  use  of  the  vote  on  the 
part  of  the  laborer  to  effect  some  social  measures 
is  not  here  called  into  question.  It  is  not  merely 
a  right,  but  a  duty.  It  was  the  false  political 
character  which  Roman  trade  unions  often  as- 
sumed, the  excesses  to  which  they  led  and  the  dan- 
gers which  they  were  thought  to  threaten  to  the 
State  that  brought  about  their  dissolution  from 
time  to  time.  Yet  even  then  the  intention  of  the 
law  was  manifested  by  the  fact  that  the  steady  an- 
cient craft  gilds,  which  had  continued  for  cen- 
turies, were  not  molested.  Thus  the  historian 
Suetonius  writes  of  Caesar  that  "  He  destroyed  all 
the  gilds  except  those  which  had  been  founded  in 

i8 


POLITICS   A.ND   VIOLENCE  1 9 

ancient  times."  ^  Again  of  Augustus  he  says: 
"  He  dissolved  the  gilds,  except  such  as  were  of 
long  standing  and  legalized."  ^ 

During  the  disturbed  times  and  amid  the  hideous 
immorality  of  the  last  days  of  the  Republic,  pic- 
tured so  graphically  by  Sallust,  the  gilds  mingled 
largely  in  the  intrigues  of  political  life.  Their 
services  were  courted,  with  bribes  and  promises 
we  may  presume,  by  every  politician  at  election 
times.  Ambitious  men  used  them  for  their  own 
dark  purposes,  and  even  Cicero,  with  all  his  dis- 
dain of  the  lower  classes  and  the  laborers,  is  said 
to  have  availed  himself  of  their  assistance.  We 
can,  therefore,  understand  the  reason  for  such  se- 
vere measures  as  the  Lex  Gabinia,  which  forbade 
all  secret  gatherings  of  the  people,  under  penalty 
of  death.  Such  laws  were  directed  not  against  the 
gilds,  but  against  political  agitators  and  revolu- 
tionists, who  cared  for  them  only  as  stepping- 
stones  to  the  acquisition  of  personal  power.  As 
W.  Warde  Fowler  writes : 

It  is  curious  to  notice,  that  by  the  time  these  old  gilds  emerge 
into  light  again  as  clubs  that  could  be  used  for  political  pur- 
poses, a  new  source  of  gain,  and  one  that  was  really  sordid, 
had  been  placed  within  the  reach  of  the  Roman  plebs  urbana; 
it  was  possible  to  make  money  by  your  vote  in  the  election 
of  the  magistrate.  In  that  degenerate  age,  when  the  vast  ac- 
cumulation of  wealth  made  it  possible  for  a  man  to  purchase 
his  way  to  power,  in  spite  of  repeated  attempts  to  check  the 

1  Suetonius,  "  Caes.,"  42. 

2  Suetonius,  "  Octav.,"  32. 


20  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

evil  by  legislation,  the  old  principle  of  honorable  association 
was  used  to  help  the  small  man  to  make  a  living  by  choosing 
the  unprincipled  and  often  the  incompetent  to  undertake  the 
government  of  the  empire.^ 

Most  interesting  is  the  discovery  at  Pompeii 
of  the  electioneering  posters  of  the  trade  gilds. 
The  wealthy  and  luxurious  city  was  throbbing  with 
political  life  on  the  eve  of  the  great  catastrophe, 
and  the  labor  unions  were  active  in  every  section 
to  secure  the  election  of  their  favorite  candidates. 
Signs  like  the  following  were  prominently  dis- 
played near  popular  taverns  and  public  places,  so- 
liciting the  votes  of  the  bewildered  citizens: 

The  Fishermen  Vote  for  Pompidius  Rufus  as  Edile. 

The  United  Goldsmiths  Want  Cuspius  Pansa  for 
Edile. 

The  latter,  as  other  similar  notices  indicated,  was 
the  choice  of  gilds  as  varied  in  their  interests  as 
the  trade  unions  of  the  jewelers,  the  muleteers,  the 
carpenters  and  the  worshipers  of  Isis. 

Casellius  Marcellus  is  put  forward  for  the  same 
office  in  a  notice  which  would  appear  rather  amus- 
ing in  our  day: 

His  neighbors  favor  Casellius  Marcellus. 

That  the  influence,  however,  of  this  politician  ex- 
tended beyond  the  circle  of  his  immediate  friends 
is  evident  from  advertisements  showing  that  he 

3  "  Social  Life  at  Rome  in  the  Age  of  Cicero,"  pp.  46,  47. 


POLITICS   A.ND  VIOLENCE  21 

had  the  support  of  the  wagoners,  farmers  and 
other  unions.  Even  Venus,  the  protecting  god- 
dess of  Pompeii,  is  made  to  declare  herself  in  favor 
of  his  election: 

Venus  Wants  Casellius  for  Edile ! 

Neither  did  the  gilds  fail  to  put  forth  the  usual 
electioneering  promises.  Thus  in  the  year  73  the 
Bakers'  Union  of  Pompeii  canvassed  for  C.  Julius 
Polybius,  because  "  he  brings  good  bread." 
Probably  he  had  promised  them  to  secure  a  reduc- 
tion in  the  price  of  grain,  or  other  similar  favors. 
Particular  oddities  are  the  announcements  of  such 
gilds  as  the  "  Night  Drinkers  "  and  the  "  Sleepy- 
heads," indicating  in  the  former  case,  we  may  pre- 
sume, the  propensity  of  the  members  to  carouse 
until  the  morning.  Certain  women,  likewise,  as 
the  placards  show,  were  carrying  on  a  vigorous 
campaign  for  their  political  favorites.  There  is 
nothing  new  beneath  the  sun,  as  all  these  discov- 
eries show!  A  list  of  the  various  political  pos- 
ters was  drawn  up  at  Paris  by  P.  Willems  in  1887.^ 

It  was  not,  as  would  appear,  such  canvassing 
that  the  Roman  statesmen  dreaded,  but  rather  the 
secret  gatherings  in  which  the  gilds  were  made  a 
cloak  for  ulterior  and  dangerous  designs.  They 
were  the  anarchist  and  I.  W.  W.  tactics  that  not 
seldom  led  to  the   disruption   of   Roman  trade 

*"Les  Elections  Municipales  a  Pompei." 


22  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

unions  and  prevented  the  attainment  of  economic 
ends. 

In  the  provinces  especially,  the  Emperors  exer- 
cised the  greatest  watchfulness.  A  classical  illus- 
tration is  that  which  occurs  in  the  famous  corre- 
spondence between  Pliny  and  Trajan.  The  for- 
mer, writing  from  Nicomedia,  desires  to  obtain 
permission  for  the  organization  of  a  gild  of  crafts- 
men to  serve  as  a  fire  department  for  the  city.  He 
recommends  the  project  favorably,  and  argues 
that,  since  only  about  150  members  are  to  be  ad- 
mitted, all  of  them  craftsmen,  he  will  be  able  to 
see  to  it  that  no  unlawful  purposes  are  pursued.^ 
The  Emperor,  however,  is  not  convinced.  In  his 
reply  he  states  that  all  previous  societies  formed 
in  that  province,  under  whatever  pretense,  have 
invariably  degenerated  into  political  clubs.  "  Let 
us  bear  in  mind,"  he  says,  "  that  this  province, 
and  in  particular  this  city,  have  been  disturbed 
by  factions  of  just  this  kind."  *  Yet  Trajan  was 
not  opposed  to  gilds  as  such,  and  conferred  spe- 
cial privileges  upon  a  bakers'  union  in  Rome;  nor 
were  the  gilds  as  uncommon  in  the  provinces  as  a 
passage  from  Gaius  might  suggest. 

This  tolerance  however  does  not  imply  any 
respect  shown  for  labor.  Interest  in  the  laborer 
for  his  own  sake,  or  for  the  love  of  God  whose 
image  he  bears,  was  unthinkable  to  the  pagan 

Tlin.  Ep.  ad  Tral,  33. 
«  Trai.  ad  Plin.,  34. 


POLITICS    A.ND   VIOLENCE  23 

mind.  Paganism  was  never  concerned  about  the 
life  and  condition  of  the  poor.  Mr.  Fowler 
rightly  states  the  situation  when  he  says: 

The  statesman,  if  he  troubled  himself  about  thera  at  all, 
looked  on  them  as  a  dangerous  element  of  society,  to  be  con- 
sidered as  human  beings  onlj'  at  election  times;  at  all  other 
times  merely  as  animals  that  had  to  be  fed  in  order  to  keep 
them  from  becoming  an  active  peril.  The  philosopher,  even 
the  Stoic,  whose  creed  vyas  by  far  the  most  ennobling  in  that 
age,  seems  to  have  left  the  dregs  of  the  people  quite  out  of 
account.  Though  his  philosophy  nominally  took  the  whole  of 
mankind  into  its  cognizance,  it  believed  the  masses  to  be  de- 
graded and  vicious  and  made  no  effort  to  redeem  them.^ 

There  was  indeed  little  hope  for  labor  under 
paganism.  But  even  that  glimmer  of  a  brighter 
future  was  relentlessly  extinguished  when  he 
turned  from  sound  labor  principles  to  espouse  the 
cause  of  mere  political  demagogues. 

A  cartoonist  in  the  Seattle  Post-Intelligencer 
significantly  presents  the  labor  issue.  A  marble 
monument,  firmly  based,  majestically  planned  and 
executed  with  consummate  skill,  is  pictured  as 
partly  pried  loose  from  its  pedestal.  At  its  foot 
stands  a  Bolshevist  laborer,  trying  to  shatter  its 
base  beneath  the  vandal  blows  of  his  huge  ham- 
mer. The  symbol  wrought  in  stone  is  emble- 
matic of  a  true,  constructive  labor  unionism.  It 
represents  the  figure  of  a  strong  woman,  nobly 
conceived  by  the  artist,  dignified,  intelligent,  alert, 
with  a  child  standing  at  her  knee.     Her  head  is 

T  "  Social  Life  at  Rome." 


24  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

lifted  upward  in  serious  thought  and  earnest  pur- 
pose, while  her  eyes  are  earnestly  questing  the 
heavens  for  guidance.  Her  right  hand  upholds  a 
flaming  torch,  not  the  symbol  of  anarchy  and  de- 
struction but  of  popular  enlightenment;  her  left 
holds,  in  strong  and  graceful  poise,  the  massive 
oval  of  her  protecting  shield  on  which  are  re- 
corded the  immediate  demands,  made  by  her  for 
the  safeguarding  of  the  worker's  home.  Such  is 
the  true  gild  concept. 

"  Erected  through  years  of  constructive  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  workers  and  dedicated  to  fur- 
ther their  just  interests,"  is  the  legend  inscribed 
on  the  pedestal.  "  After  years  of  patient  toil  a 
constructive  monument  of  the  achievements  of  or- 
ganized labor  was  built,  and  each  year  finds  more 
and  valuable  additions  made  to  our  masterpiece," 
says  the  Carpenter  in  reproducing  this  drawing. 
It  is  true  that  the  ideal  of  labor  unionism  that  it 
symbolizes  is  not  fully  realized,  particularly  on  its 
religious  side,  yet  in  part  at  least  it  has  been 
achieved.  And  is  all  this  to  be  destroyed,  ideal 
and  achievement  alike?  "And  for  what?" 
Such  was  the  question  asked  by  the  organ  of  the 
United  Brotherhood  of  Carpenters  and  Joiners  of 
America. 

Standing  by  with  idle  hands,  as  the  artist  pic- 
tures the  background  of  his  scene,  is  a  crowd  of 
workers,  men  and  women,  whom  starvation  and 
despair  may  at  any  moment  drive  to  deeds  of  vio- 


POLITICS   AND   VIOLENCE  25 

lence.  But  this  is  neither  more  nor  less  than 
part  of  the  cunningly  devised  plan  of  unscrupulous 
labor  leaders  who  themselves  incur  no  losses.  In 
the  distance  loom  the  black  scaffoldings  of  incom- 
pleted structures  against  the  dark  skies.  "  Throw 
away  your  constitution  and  strike  with  your 
class  I  "  is  the  cry  sent  up  to  the  labor  unionist  by 
a  blatant  press,  often  supported  out  of  the  money 
of  the  anarchist  rich,  while  the  same  demand  comes 
in  a  rising  treble  from  the  red  revolutionists. 

It  is  not  through  anarchy  that  the  laborer  can 
achieve  his  end,  but  by  a  sane  progressive  sys- 
tem of  trade  unionism  that  will  not  disregard  the 
dictates  of  religion;  by  a  rightful  use  of  the  ballot 
which  shall  assure  him  the  legislative  measures 
that  can  safely  and  surely  help  to  bring  about  a 
true  democracy  in  industry  as  in  politics;  and 
finally  by  a  gradual  education  in  cooperative  en- 
terprises that  will  enable  him  to  take  an  intelli- 
gent part  in  the  ownership  and  management  of 
the  means  of  production  on  which  his  livelihood 
depends.  So  alone  may  we  hope  for  peace,  con- 
tentment and  popular  prosperity. 


CHAPTER     IV 

STATE  PATERNALISM  AND  SLAVERY 

THE  special  privileges  which  from  time  to 
time  were  conferred  upon  the  gilds  by 
successive  Emperors  became  in  turn  the 
occasion  of  abuses.  Men  often  joined  gilds  with 
which  they  had  no  trade  relations,  purely  for  the 
sake  of  the  proffered  advantages,  and  even  be- 
came members  of  many  gilds  at  the  same  time. 
Hence  stringent  regulations  followed,  which  led 
the  way  to  State  interference  to  such  a  degree  that 
life  in  the  gilds  became  almost  intolerable.  The 
lesson  of  the  Egyptian  labor  corporations  was  now 
to  be  enforced  by  the  misery  of  the  Roman  trade 
unionists. 

Once  assumed,  the  paternalistic  attitude  of  the 
State  was  never  to  lessen,  but  constantly  to  in- 
crease. The  complete  degeneration  of  the  la- 
borer was  to  be  the  inevitable  result.  In  return 
for  privileges  and  immunities,  the  gilds  were  put 
into  the  service  of  the  State.  They  had  prac- 
tically become  a  State  institution  in  not  a  few  in- 
stances and  were  given  special  legal  defenders  at 
court  and  special  judges,  during  the  reign  of  Alex- 

26 


STATE   PATERNALISM   AND   SLAVERY         27 

ander  Severus.     Membership  in  many  of  them 
finally  became  compulsory  by  law. 

Freedom  of  choice  no  longer  existed  in  these 
"  socialized  "  gilds,  for  men  were  born  into  them. 
They  had  become  hereditary  and  there  was  no 
more  hope  of  escape  from  them  than  from  a  Ro- 
man prison  cell.  Duties  of  every  kind  were  im- 
posed upon  the  members.  They  were  henceforth 
impressed  more  than  ever  into  the  service  of  the 
State.  Most  unpopular,  however,  were  the  sor- 
dida  munera,  or  menial  duties  they  were  obliged 
to  render  to  the  public,  duties  which  had  no  rela- 
tion whatever  with  the  trades  of  the  respective 
unions.  They  were  to  do  chores  of  every  kind 
for  the  State.  The  most  oppressive  imposition 
laid  upon  a  great  number  of  the  gilds  was  the  ob- 
ligation of  providing  free  grain  or  bread  for  the 
plebeian  population  of  the  capital.  Upon  the 
gilds  which  were  free  from  such  service  the  State 
imposed  high  taxes  in  lieu  of  this  obligation. 

The  principal  unions  at  the  service  of  the  pub- 
lic were  the  gilds  of  the  shipmasters,  the  bakers, 
the  swine-dealers  and  the  lime-burners.  The 
members  drew  their  salaries  from  the  State,  were 
not  subjected  to  torture  when  accused,  and  were 
later  even  freed  from  military  service,  as  well  as 
from  other  public  and  municipal  duties.  Strict 
property  and  inheritance  regulations  were  im- 
posed in  particular  upon  the  shipmen,  who  were 
most  necessary  for  victualling  the  Roman  capital. 


2  8  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

When  a  shipman's  family  became  extinct  another 
was  designated  in  its  place  by  the  prefect.^ 

Duties  which  in  earlier  days  had  been  rendered 
by  free  compact  had  now  become  entirely  compul- 
sory. The  statute  books  are  full  of  penalties  for 
men  who  dared  to  shirk  their  portion  of  the  work. 
Fugitives  from  the  unions,  who  sought  to  emi- 
grate into  the  provinces  in  order  to  escape  from 
this  oppressive  paternalism  of  the  State,  were  re- 
turned like  fugitive  slaves  by  the  provincial  gov- 
ernors. 

So  strict  was  the  hereditary  obligation  of  re- 
maining in  the  gild  to  which  a  citizen  belonged  that 
even  a  cleric,  when  found  to  have  escaped  from  his 
corporation,  was  under  a  degenerate  system  of  leg- 
islation obliged  to  return  to  it,  if  he  had  obtained 
a  rank  no  higher  than  that  of  deacon.  The  spe- 
cial law  to  this  effect  was  passed  in  the 
year  445.^  This  makes  plain  how  the  Church 
herself  was  shackled  by  the  State,  and  how  diffi- 
cult it  was  for  her  in  such  a  decadent  civilization 
to  fight  her  brave  struggle  for  humanity  and  broth- 
erhood, and  to  save  what  might  still  be  saved. 

Most  deplorable  everywhere  was  the  condition 
of  the  bakers'  unions.  The  hardships  which 
membership  in  them  implied  made  it  most  desir- 
able to  escape  their  thraldom.  To  render  them 
less  abhorrent  special  privileges  were  frequently 

1  Cod.  Theod.  XIII,  tit.,  5. 

^Nov.  Val.  15;  also  Cod.  Theod.  XIV,  3,  n. 


STATE   PATERNALISM   AND   SLAVERY  29 

granted,  such  as  the  exemption  from  the  sord'tda 
munera.  The  fact,  however,  that  men  were  ju- 
dicially condemned  to  such  a  gild  tells  its  own  sad 
story.  Moreover,  according  to  a  regulation  of 
Constantius,  made  in  the  year  355,  any  one  who 
married  a  baker's  daughter  was  compelled  to 
enter  the  gild;  and  a  law  of  Honorius,  in  403,  for- 
bade any  baker  to  marry  a  woman  not  belonging  to 
the  corporation.  The  penalty  in  the  latter  case 
was  no  less  than  confiscation  of  property  and  de- 
portation. 

The  conditions  under  this  form  of  State  pa- 
ternalism may  give  some  indication  of  what,  in 
another  way,  must  be  expected  if  an  entire  nation 
is  enslaved  under  a  servile  State.  This  must  of 
necessity  come  into  existence  if  all  the  means  of 
production  are  transferred  from  the  capitalist  to 
the  State,  in  place  of  that  happy  readjustment 
which  shall  make  of  the  majority  of  the  work- 
ers, personally,  part-owners  at  least  in  industry. 
The  government  bureaucracy,  or  in  other  words 
the  successful  politicians  and  clever  demagogues, 
would  practically  possess  complete  control  over 
the  persons  of  the  citizens.  Those  who  would  find 
least  favor  with  them  would  be  confronted  with 
the  most  intolerable  conditions  until  they  too  sub- 
mitted to  the  new  servitude. 

What  has  been  said  of  the  development  of  the 
system  of  labor  gilds  in  pagan  times,  even  in  its 
palmiest  days,  must  not  be  permitted  to  leave  the 


30  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

impression,  as  we  have  already  stated,  that  labor 
was  ever  honored  save  under  the  Christian  dis- 
pensation, where  the  influence  of  the  Church 
could  be  duly  exercised;  or  under  the  ancient 
Covenant,  in  as  far  as  the  spirit  of  Jehovah  was 
with  the  chosen  people.  A  greater  simplicity,  it  is 
true,  prevailed  in  the  earlier  days  of  Greek  and 
Roman  paganism,  before  slavery  had  appeared  in 
the  vast  proportions  it  was  to  assume  in  later  cen- 
turies. This  was  particularly  true  of  farm  labor. 
Yet  we  recall  the  struggles  which  from  almost 
the  earliest  times  took  place  between  the  patri- 
cians and  plebeians.  "The  latter  were  not  even 
admitted  to  the  ancient  Roman  cults,  until  grad- 
ually, by  dint  of  their  numbers,  they  created  trib- 
unes and,  in  367  B.  c,  gained  admission  even  to 
the  consulship.  But  they  were  still  excluded  from 
the  priestly  colleges  of  pontifices  and  augures. 
Certain  such  functions  remained  to  the  last  an 
exclusive  privilege  of  the  patrician  class.  This 
incidentally  illustrates  the  vast  difference  between 
paganism  and  Christianity.  So  too  the  spirit  of 
conquest  excluded  all  democracy,  since  not  the 
goods  only,  but  the  persons  themselves  of  the  con- 
quered were  left  at  the  merciless  disposition  of 
the  victors.  The  knights,  or  equites,  were  later 
to  become  the  real  capitalists,  from  about  the  mid- 
dle of  the  second  century  before  our  era.  They 
abused  their  political  power  at  home  to  promote 


STATE    PATERNALISM   AND   SLAVERY         31 

their  own  interests,  while  in  Asia  we  are  to  find 
them  carrying  on  the  most  usurious  transactions. 

So,  again,  the  speculators  who  enriched  them- 
selves in  the  provinces  bought  up,  in  turn,  the 
rich  Italian  lands  and  cultivated  them  with  unfree 
labor.  Thus  the  excessive  accumulation  of  farm 
capital  in  the  hands  of  a  few  became  the  curse  of 
Rome.  This  was  known  as  the  latifundia  sys- 
tem. In  spite  of  the  ancient  legislation  which  per- 
mitted no  one  to  possess  more  than  500  jugera  of 
the  Roman  public  land,  modeled  after  the  ancient 
Greek  laws,  the  small  farmers  were  gradually 
bought  out.  In  opposition  to  this  ruinous  form 
of  land-capitalism  a  land-reform  movement  was 
begun  by  Tiberius  Gracchus,  and  carried  on  after 
him  by  his  brother  Gaius  Sempronius  Gracchus. 
Both  in  turn  met  their  death  in  the  agitation  they 
aroused. 

As  the  last  scene  of  this  sad  tragedy,  we  find 
the  descendants  of  the  farmers  who  had  once  cul- 
tivated the  fertile  neighboring  lands,  now  reap- 
pearing as  the  proletariat  of  Rome,  who  must  be 
kept  from  revolution  by  doles  of  bread  and  gladi- 
atorial shows.  The  debased  rabble  thus  created 
were  indulged  to  their  heart's  content  with  pag- 
eants of  brutal  bloodshed  and  the  groans  of  dying 
men.  The  munificence  of  wealthy  citizens,  and 
particularly  of  the  emperors  themselves,  provided 
them  with  the  splendor  of  public  buildings  and  an 


32  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

excess  of  civic  magnificence.^  Underneath  all  this 
display  was  rottenness  and  untold  misery,  particu- 
larly on  the  part  of  the  vast  slave  population,  who 
were  left  without  any  shadow  of  human  rights. 

The  system  of  slavery  was  a  fearful  clog  upon 
the  labor  movement.  Slaves  were  the  living  ma- 
chinery of  Greek  and  Roman  capitalism.  Thou- 
sands of  human  beings  were  often  the  possession 
of  one  man  of  fortune.  They  were  the  great 
body  of  the  producers,  whose  labor,  if  the  master 
so  desired,  was  limited  by  their  physical  endurance 
only.  Their  strength  and  talent  belonged  to  him 
entirely.  They  could,  above  all,  be  replaced  at 
little  cost.  To  wear  out  a  slave  in  a  few  years 
was  a  policy  often  practised  as  more  profitable 
than  properly  to  provide  and  care  for  him.  With 
this  system  the  poverty-stricken  freemen  and  freed- 
men  were  compelled  to  compete. 

The  slave  population  of  Rome  in  the  early 
days  of  the  Empire  is  estimated  at  about  i,ooo,- 
ooo,  as  against  only  10,000  of  the  upper  classes, 
who  formed  the  Roman  plutocracy  and  alone  en- 
joyed the  fruit  of  the  enslavement  of  the  entire 
world.  There  was  no  middle  class,  since  the  free 
laborers  were  all  sunk  into  abject  poverty. 
There  was  comparatively  little  work  for  them  in 
the  mansions  of  the  rich  that  were  filled  with  an 
army  of  slaves,  but  there  were  calls  for  their  serv- 

3  Guglielmo  Ferrero,  "  Ancient  Rome  and  Modern  America," 
pp.  24-29.      , 


STATE    PATERNALISM   AND   SLAVERY  33 

ices  from  those  who  themselves  were  not  able  to 
purchase  slave  labor  or  were  not  provided  with 
requisite  craftsmen. 

Though  the  free  worker  did  not,  therefore,  dis- 
appear entirely,  as  some  imagine,  yet  his  life  was 
one  of  untold  misery  and  degradation.  No  won- 
der then  if  he  finally  relinquished  the  struggle  and 
degenerated  into  the  class  of  "  clients  "  who  hung 
about  the  doors  of  the  rich  to  maintain  the  pomp 
of  the  mansion,  performed  any  menial  labor  and 
were  treated  little  better  than  dogs,  feeding  on 
the  bones  that  were  thrown  to  them.  No  wonder 
if  he  fell  still  lower  and  descended  to  the  level  of 
the  great  mass  of  the  people,  the  bulk  of  the  pro- 
letariat, who  lived  in  complete  idleness  and  were 
supported  by  the  State  with  doles  of  free  grain, 
and  later  of  bread  and  of  oil.  At  times  even 
vast  sums  of  money  were  divided  among  them. 
Yet  all  this  was  not  for  any  love  of  the  people, 
such  as  moved  the  heart  of  Christ  to  multiply  the 
loaves  and  fishes  for  the  multitudes  that  had  fol- 
lowed after  Him,  but  to  avert  the  persistent  dan- 
ger of  mob  uprisings.  They  must  be  fed  or  they 
might  grow  restless  and  uneasy,  and  end  by  tear- 
ing to  pieces  the  handful  of  idle  rich  who  were  rot- 
ting amid  their  fabulous  wealth  and  indescribable 
luxuries,  the  spoil  of  a  world  laid  prostrate  at 
their  feet.  Hence  the  "  bread  and  circuses,"  for 
the  equally  idle  masses,  the  public  baths  where 
they  might  loll  about,  the  sensuous  theaters, -the 


34  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

combats  of  gladiators  and  the  human  holocausts 
to  satisfy  their  lust  for  blood.  The  demoraliza- 
tion which  such  a  life  produced  can  readily  be  un- 
derstood and  its  fearful  reaction  upon  all  classes 
of  labor. 

But  there  are  still  other  facts  to  be  taken  into 
account  if  we  would  fully  comprehend  the  condi- 
tion of  the  free  citizen  who  sought  in  some  man- 
ner to  retain  his  own  self-respect  by  honest  and 
useful  labor.  We  must  remember  that  the  large 
capitalistic  enterprises  of  the  day  were  carried  on 
by  slaves.  These,  at  the  height  of  Rome's  glory, 
could  be  purchased  by  the  tens  of  thousands. 
They  could  be  bought  at  the  lowest  prices,  could 
be  supported  on  the  coarsest  food,  and  were,  ac- 
cording to  Cato's  rule,  only  to  sleep  and  to  work, 
while  the  lash  was  mercilessly  plied  to  keep  them 
from  failing  beneath  the  strain. 

Supplied  with  thousands  of  these  wretched  be- 
ings, who  poured  in  wide  streams  through  the  por- 
tals of  Rome  with  each  new  conquest,  the  wealth- 
iest of  the  Senators  did  not  disdain  to  carry  on 
great  industrial  enterprises  of  their  own.  "  Im- 
poverished as  industry  in  Rome  ever  had  been 
and  ever  remained,"  writes  Joseph  Schings,  "  the 
poorer  citizens  nevertheless  gradually  succeeded 
in  establishing  various  trades.  As  soon  however 
as  these  promised  to  become  remunerative  the 
rich  with  their  capital  and  slaves  entered  into 
competition,  and  mercilessly  depressed  the  labor 


STATE    PATERNALISM   AND    SLAVERY  35 

of  the  poor  citizen  workers."  ^  The  position  of 
the  latter  was  made  the  more  unbearable  by  the 
fact  that  the  slaves  themselves  were  a  part  of 
the  capital  with  which  free  labor  was  forced  into 
competition.  The  Roman  law,  moreover,  main- 
tained against  the  laborer  all  the  injustice  of  mod- 
ern individualism  and  confirmed  in  every  way  the 
absolute  power  of  wealth.  Worst  of  all  there 
remained  for  the  laborer  the  possibihty  of  sinking 
into  slavery  himself,  a  fate  too  terrible  for 
thought. 

Hence,  too,  the  utter  disdain  with  which  the 
free  laborer  was  regarded  by  the  haughty  Roman. 
"  All  gains  made  by  hired  laborers,"  was  Cicero's 
dispassionate  judgment,  "  are  dishonorable  and 
base,  for  what  we  buy  of  them  is  their  labor  and 
not  their  artistic  skill.  With  them  the  very  gain 
itself  does  but  increase  the  slavishness  of  their 
work,"  ^  Such  was  the  judgment  of  Rome  and 
Greece.  Such  was  the  judgment  of  all  the  pagan 
world.  It  is  not  the  purpose  to  enter  into  this 
subject  in  the  present  volume.  A  single  quotation 
from  the  Father  of  History,  Herodotus,  will  suf- 
fice: 

I  cannot  say  if  the  Greeks  have  copied  the  Egyptians  in  their 
disdain  for  work,  because  I  find  the  same  contempt  spread 
among  the  Scythians,  Persians  and  Lydians;  in  a  word,  be- 
cause among  the  barbarians   (i.  e.,  all  who  were  not  Greeks) 

*"  Socialpolitische  Abhandlungen."    Nos.  IV  and  V,  p.  44. 
8"Z)/-  Officiis,"  I,  42,  150. 


;^6  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

those  who  learn  trades  and  even  their  children  are  regarded 
as  the  lowest  of  citizens.  .  •  .  All  Greeks,  especially  the  Lace- 
demonians,   are   educated   in  these   principles.* 

We  are  told  that  in  Athens  a  law  was  actually 
proposed  to  reduce  all  artisans  to  slavery.'^ 

"Herodotus,  II,  167. 

^  Smithsonian  Report  for  1912,  p.  599. 


CHAPTER     V 

FROM  SERVITUDE  TO  FREEDOM 

LABOR  was  a  badge  of  disgrace  in  the  eyes 
of  paganism.  The  laborers  themselves 
were  considered  as  nothing  more  than 
proletarii,  "  child-bearers,"  a  term  which  should 
be  applied  only  as  a  mark  of  honor  under  the 
Christian  dispensation,  but  upon  which  the  pagan 
mind  impressed  the  meaning  still  implied  in  it  to- 
day. The  masses  were  meant  only  to  toil  and 
slave  that  a  few  might  live  in  ease  and  opulence. 
Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Xenophon  and  all  the 
greatest  moralists  and  thinkers  of  pagan  antiquity 
could  not  rise  above  this  standard. 

Even  the  merchant  was  not  ordinarily  held  in 
good  repute.  His  position  indeed  was  far  more 
favorable.  He  might  himself  probably  be  a  slave- 
holder possessed  of  no  inconsiderable  wealth. 
Yet  it  is  none  the  less  true  that  he  too  was  des- 
pised by  the  Roman  patrician  unless  he  had 
amassed  a  fortune.  Rome,  like  America,  knew 
how  to  worship  success.  It  has  been  shown  by 
Nitzsch  that  until  the  war  with  Hannibal  Roman 
senators  themselves  carried  on  trade;  but  always 
on  an  extensive  scale.  The  reason  for  despising 
the  small  merchant,  according  to  Cicero's  view, 

37 


38  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

was  that  he  could  not  ply  his  profession  without 
practising  deceit,^  The  rich  bankers'  gilds,  on  the 
other  hand,  whether  in  Rome  or  in  the  provinces, 
were  always  held  in  great  esteem  because  of  the 
wealth  they  possessed  and  were  thus  a  powerful 
and  influential  factor  in  Roman  life. 

Labor  however  could  boast  of  no  such  position. 
Its  organizations  evidently  accomplished  little  to- 
wards the  economic  amelioration  of  the  lot  of 
the  free  workers.  It  is  true  that  the  very  exist- 
ence of  the  labor  gilds  through  all  the  centuries 
of  Roman  history  from  time  immemorial  is  a  suf- 
ficient indication  that  the  solidarity  thus  produced 
could  not  have  been  void  of  all  results.  Indi- 
vidualism, however,  was  supreme,  as  it  again  came 
to  be  under  the  Liberalism  that  followed  the  Re- 
formation. The  common  good  was  but  little  re- 
garded and  the  individual  was  exposed  to  the 
heathen  law  of  the  survival,  not  indeed  of  the  fit- 
test, but  of  the  strongest.  The  protection  of  the 
weak  was  no  part  of  pagan  ethics.  Usury  and 
extortion  could  be  freely  practised  upon  him. 

The  conception  of  democracy  was  not  even  to 
enter  into  the  workman's  dream,  much  less  into 
his  life.  Industrial  democracy  was  a  star  that 
never  swung  into  his  ken. 

But  if  paganism  prevented  the  full  efficiency  of 
the  gild  system,  yet  the  convivial  element  was 
never  wanting  in  these  societies.     It  was  permitted 

1  Cicero,  "  De  Officiis,"  I,  42,  150,  151. 


FROM   SERVITUDE   TO    FREEDOM  39 

their  members  to  drown  their  miseries  in  acid 
wine.  Even  slave  gilds  had  their  banquets,  carou- 
sels and  orgies.  Fellowship  moreover  was  every- 
where fostered  by  the  gilds.  Members  of  the 
sodalicia,  or  fraternities,  could  not  even  appear 
against  each  other  in  court.^  Similar  customs 
must  have  also  prevailed  in  the  labor  unions. 

Most  important  was  the  practice  which  dedi- 
cated every  gild  to  some  divinity  whose  feast  was 
celebrated  with  great  pomp  and  merry-making. 
Even  when  this  religious  instinct  had  been  lost 
to  a  great  extent,  the  statues  of  the  god  or  god- 
dess must  still  have  held  their  station  in  the  meet- 
ing places.  Pagan  religion  unfortunately  could 
do  little  to  restrain  the  passions  of  men.  With 
its  strong  appeal  to  man's  inferior  nature  it  often 
served  rather  to  degrade  still  further  rather  than 
to  uplift  its  votaries.  Yet  such  faint  glimmerings 
of  truth  as  it  retained  may  still  at  times  have 
thrown  a  ray  of  hope  into  the  dreary  life  of  the 
laboring  classes. 

At  the  period  with  which  we  close  our  review 
the  elements  of  dissolution  were  at  work  within 
the  State.  It  is  an  absurd  contention,  put  forth 
by  the  historian  Edward  Gibbon,  and  other  atheist 
authors,  that  the  decline  of  the  Roman  Empire 
was  due  to  the  introduction  of  Christianity.  Only 
the  preconceived  purpose,  that  they  must  write  to 
disprove  the  divinity  of  the   Christian  religion, 

2  Mommsen,  "  De  Collects  et  Sodaliciis  Romanorum." 


40  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

could  lead  to  such  extravagant  misrepresentations. 
As  Hilaire  Belloc  rightly  says : 

The  material  decline  of  the  Empire  is  not  correlative  with 
nor  parallel  to  the  growth  of  the  Catholic  Church,  it  is  the 
counterpart  of  that  growth,  and,  as  one  of  the  greatest  of 
modern  scholars  has  well  said,  the  Faith  is  that  which  Rome 
accepted  in  her  maturity;  nor  is  the  Faith  the  heir  of  her  de- 
cline, but  rather  the  conservator  of  all  that  could  be  conserved. 

Already  under  the  pagan  emperors  a  class  of 
country  slaves,  coloni,  existed  who  were  ascribed 
to  the  soil,  adscriptitii.  They  could  be  sold  only 
with  the  ground  to  which  they  belonged.  Such 
was  the  effect  of  purely  economic  conditions  that 
made  such  methods  less  expensive  as  the  supply  of 
slaves  decreased  and  their  price  rose.  Under  the 
influence  of  Christianity  this  at  once  suggested 
the  possibility  of  a  more  humane  legislation  by 
which  the  slaves  upon  all  the  landed  estates  at  last 
found  a  home  and  were  assured  inviolable  fam- 
ily ties.  In  the  cities  likewise  they  came  to  be  re- 
garded, even  by  the  civil  law,  as  human  beings.^ 
Thus  a  gradual  emancipation  was  slowly  being 
effected  whose  main  humanitarian  features  must 
be  ascribed  to  the  Church  alone. 

As  Paul  Allard  shows,^  the  great  improvement 
in  the  condition  of  the  slaves  which  we  find  had 
taken  place  before  the  end  of  the  fifth  century  can 

'  H.  Pesch,  S.  J.,  "  Lib er alts mus,  Socialismus  und  christl'tche 
Gesellschaftsordnung,"  p.  646. 
*  "  Les  Esclaves  Chretiens." 


FROM  SERVITUDE  TO  FREEDOM       4 1 

not  be  accounted  for  by  any  theory  of  evolution. 
Similarly  the  beautiful  teachings  of  sdme  of  the 
pagan  philosophers  were  confined  to  mere  words 
and  never  reduced  to  practice,  except  to  a  very 
limited  degree.  It  was  mainly  Christianity  which 
without  violence  gradually  transformed  the  con- 
dition of  the  slave.  Slavery  itself  was  so  com- 
pletely embodied  in  the  social  institutions  of  the 
time  that  any  attempt  to  sweep  it  away  at  once 
would  only  have  ended  in  a  bloody  and  futile 
revolution.  The  task  of  Christianity  therefore 
was  to  begin  by  ameliorating  the  hard  lot  of  the 
slave.  In  the  fourth  century  great  and  saintly  men 
like  St.  Gregory  Nazianzen,  St.  John  Chrisostom, 
St.  Gregory  of  Nyssa,  Lactantius  and  others  arose 
to  protest  against  the  unnatural  inequality  thus  in- 
troduced into  human  conditions.  Under  pagan- 
ism no  marriage  between  slaves  was  acknowledged 
by  the  Roman  laws.  These  laws  on  the  other 
hand  were  constantly  improved  by  the  successive 
Christian  Emperors  so  as  to  ameliorate  the  con- 
dition of  slavery.  The  apostate  Julian  was  the 
single  exception  in  this  regard  during  the  fourth 
century.  Before  the  Church  slave  and  master 
were  equal  in  the  sight  of  God.  Slaves  not  only 
could  receive  sacred  orders  but  were  actually  ele- 
vated to  the  episcopacy  itself.  A  slave  was  lifted 
up  to  the  very  Chair  of  Peter,  holding  the  highest 
office  that  the  Church  could  bestow.^     Thus  by 

8  Pope  Callixtus,  A.  D.  221. 


42  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

the  influence  of  the  Church  was  labor  restored  to 
its  true  dignity  in  the  minds  of  men.  Two  hun- 
dred years  after  the  reign  of  the  first  Christian 
Emperor  the  Church  had  practically  eliminated  the 
evil  of  slavery,  which  the  new  wave  of  barbarian 
paganism  was  again  to  bring  back  until  the  Church 
could  overcome  it  a  second  time. 

The  gradual,  prudent  and  effective  action  of 
the  Church  in  favor  of  the  most  oppressed  class 
of  labor  and,  so  likewise,  for  the  betterment  of  the 
conditions  of  the  free  worker  and  the  closer  ap- 
proach of  that  democratic  ideal  which  was  to  seek 
its  expression  in  a  true  Christian  democracy,  is 
thus  outlined  by  Abbot  Snow,  O.  S.  B. : 

At  her  suggestion  the  Christian  emperors  mitigated  the 
harsh  dominion,  took  away  from  the  masters  the  power  of 
life  and  death,  gave  the  slave  redress  at  law  and  legalized 
his  marriage.  The  Church  dignified  the  process  of  manumis- 
sion by  obtaining  that  it  should  take  place  in  the  Church  be- 
fore the  altar.  This  gave  facility  and  sacredness  to  the  act, 
and  the  Church  assumed  the  protection  of  the  men  thus  freed, 
to  shield  them  against  further  molestation.  Council  after  Coun- 
cil in  different  countries  made  provision  in  favor  of  slaves. 
The  churches  were  declared  to  be  places  of  refuge  for  ill- 
treated  slaves,  securing  thereby  a  fair  investigation  of  their 
grievances.' 

The  Church  constantly  urged  the  liberation  of 
slaves  as  a  pious  work.  St.  Melania  alone,  as 
the  writer  states,  gave  freedom  to  8,000.  Slaves 
belonging  to  any  of  the  churches  were  never  to 

«  "  The  Church  and  Labor,"  p.  9. 


FROM  SERVITUDE  TO  FREEDOM      43 

pass  to  Other  masters  but  to  freedom  only. 
Meantime  they  were  carefully  protected  by  strict 
ecclesiastical  canons,  and  there  was  little  anxiety 
on  their  part  to  exchange  the  state  of  safety  and 
comfort,  thus  assured  to  them  and  their  families, 
for  the  uncertain  struggle  that  would  face  them 
with  their  freedom." 

That  the  economic  condition  of  the  free  worker 
was  still  so  precarious  is  to  be  attributed  solely 
to  the  fact  that  the  conquest  of  the  Gospel  over 
the  souls  of  men  was  far  from  complete.  The 
plutocracy  of  Rome  had  been  sunk  too  deep  in 
luxury  and  hardened  into  unfeeling  selfishness  by 
centuries  of  merciless  cruelty.  It  could  not  be  en- 
tirely transformed.  Yet  the  Church  of  Christ 
never  failed  to  produce  her  saints  and  apostles 
who  were  a  rebuke  to  their  age,  to  its  riches,  its 
lust  and  its  oppression.  In  his  review  of  antiquity 
Huber  thus  briefly  describes  the  effect  of  Chris- 
tianity: 

A  new  element  of  life,  which  at  once  seized  upon  the  hearts 
of  the  people  with  wonderful  strength,  was  given  by  the  new 
religion  to  humanity,  sick  well-nigh  unto  death.  A  more  strik- 
ing contrast  cannot  be  imagined  than  that  between  the  dom- 
inant spirit  of  pagan  times  and  the  principles  and  ideas  of  the 
new  religion,  which  therefore  must  be  looked  upon  as  a 
stranger  come  to  us  from  a  higher  world.  At  the  period  of 
the  enormous  moral  decline  manifested  in  the  fall  of  antiquity, 
for  which  science  knew  no  cure  or  remedy,  the  needed  help 
was  afforded  mankind  by  a  contact  of  the  human  with  the 
Divine. 

'  Ibid.,  pp.  9  and  10. 


44  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

The  new  religion  declared  that  all  alike,  the  mighty  lord 
and  the  despised  slave,  were  children  of  God,  equal  in  the 
realm  of  grace.  Mankind  was  to  be  only  a  single  family 
under  one  Heavenly  Father.  On  this  unity  was  to  be  founded 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  the  moral  dominion  of  a  world-wide 
community  of  Love.  With  what  joy  the  oppressed  and  suf- 
fering must  have  hailed  this  message,  as  their  new  Gospel! 
Mankind  was  to  be  morally  transformed.  The  world's  servi- 
tude in  the  thraldom  of  pleasure  was  to  be  exchanged  for  the 
dignity  of  a  moral  freedom  of  the  will;  self-seeking  and  op- 
pressive domination,  for  love  and  mutual  helpfulness;  relent- 
less and  heartless  exploitation,  for  mercy  and  kindness;  slavery 
and  degradation  of  human  beings,  for  respect  towards  all  man- 
kind; unbridled  sexual  lust,  for  chastity  and  abnegation;  the 
disgrace  of  labor  for  its  honor.^ 

This  transformation  was  not  indeed  to  be  ac- 
complished in  a  moment,  nor  yet  in  a  century, 
throughout  the  entire  world.  It  was  never  to  be 
perfectly  accomplished  anywhere  except  where 
the  teachings  of  Christ  were  accepted  and  prac- 
tised in  their  perfection.  The  human  will  was 
always  to  retain  its  freedom  to  choose  evil  in 
preference  to  good.  Yet  a  new  era  in  history 
had  begun,  a  new  human  society  had  been  created 
in  which  selfishness  was  to  give  place  to  love,  in 
which  the  family  and  the  individual  were  hence- 
forth to  be  held  sacred  and  in  which  the  goods 
of  creation  should  be  shared  by  all.  "  No  power 
upon  earth  was  able  to  stay  the  triumphant  march 
of  these  ideas  through  the  history  of  the  world." 
It  is  only  in  proportion  as  the  world  returns  to 

*  Ibid.,  Huber,  "  Der  Socialismus.  Riickblick  auf  das  Alter- 
thum,"  70,  71. 


FROM    SERVITUDE   TO    FREEDOM  45 

the  truth  and  charity  of  Christ  that  it  can  ever 
hope  to  solve  the  economic  and  social  problems, 
which  under  different  aspect  and  in  different  de- 
grees of  intensity,  are  ever  the  same.  Only  a 
change  of  heart  and  a  change  of  view,  such  as  true 
Christianity  alone  can  effect,  will  ever  save  the 
world  economically  and  socially,  no  less  than  in  a 
spiritual  sense. 

From  the  very  beginning  the  Church  worked 
among  the  laborers  and  the  slaves  of  the  great 
pagan  empire.  It  was  the  slave  population  that 
crowded  most  numerously  into  her  Fold,  the  poor 
and  the  disinherited,  though  the  rich  who  spent 
themselves  for  Christ,  the  patrician  and  the  cen- 
turion, were  not  wanting.  As  she  grew  in 
strength,  she  still  sought,  as  her  divinely  entrusted 
mission,  to  impress  upon  poor  and  rich  alike  the 
maxims  of  the  Gospel  with  their  great  twofold 
precepts  of  the  love  of  God  and  the  love  of  our 
neighbor.  Her  task  was  to  lessen  by  every  means 
in  her  power  the  evils  which  she  could  not  prevent, 
and  to  save  for  a  new  civilization  whatever  was 
good  and  noble  in  the  old.  Her  mission,  then  as 
now,  was  to  strike  at  error  wherever  she  saw  it 
affecting  the  faith  or  the  morality  of  mankind, 
wherever  she  beheld  endangered  the  supreme 
ideal  of  the  brotherhood  of  man  and  the  Father- 
hood of  God. 

The  seed  of  democracy  had  been  sown  by  her 
upon  the  earth,  the  new  seed  of  a  system  of  gov- 


46  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

ernment,  whatever  its  outward  form,  that  should 
recognize  the  dignity  of  every  human  being  as 
made  to  the  image  and  likeness  of  God;  the  seed, 
too,  of  a  system  of  economics,  whatever  its  spe- 
cial aspects,  that  should  demand  an  ownership  not 
limited  to  a  few  nor  absorbed  by  a  communistic 
State,  but  personal  to  the  workers  themselves. 
The  attainment  of  it  should  depend  upon  justice, 
thrift  and  ability,  aided  and  guarded  by  Christian 
laws. 

Thus,  by  the  Catholic  Church,  at  its  very  be- 
ginning, were  laid  the  foundations  of  Democratic 
Industry  on  which  the  world  must  build  again  to- 
day if  its  structure  is  ever  to  be  sound  and  lasting. 


CHAPTER     VI 

RECASTING  THE  WORLD 

IMPERIAL  Rome,  like  every  worldly  power 
before  her,  like  Babylonia  and  Assyria,  like 
Egypt,  Persia  and  Tyre,  rose  to  the  height 
of  her  culture  and  glory  only  to  pass  through  a 
slow  decline  to  a  hopeless  fall.  Black  and  men- 
acing, the  waves  of  the  barbarian  deluge  had  long 
threatened  to  engulf  her,  until  at  last  they  broke 
their  bounds.  Nothing  remained  of  all  her  for- 
mer pride  and  power  save  a  waste  of  desolation 
and  the  solitary  ruins  where  the  night  owl  nested 
and  the  lean  wolf  preyed.  Stately  mansions  and 
ancient  palaces  were  of  no  interest  to  the  savage 
races  that  had  applied  the  torch  to  their  walls  and 
dragged  away  their  last  surviving  victims  into  slav- 
ery. Forest  and  field  were  the  home  of  the  new 
conquerors  who  cared  not  for  the  marble  baths 
of  Rome  and  her  luxurious  theaters. 

Of  all  the  glorious  institutions  of  the  past  the 
Church  alone  remained,  firm  and  unshaken.  She, 
whose  words  had  been  but  feebly  heeded  by  a  sen- 
suous and  decadent  Roman  civilization,  and  who 
alone  might  still  have  saved  the  ancient  world 
from  its  impending  ruin,  now  began  again  through 
slow  centuries  to   educate   and   Christianize   the 

47 


48  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

savage  conquerors  of  the  earth.  Everywhere  we 
behold  her  sending  forth  her  fearless  missionaries 
and  erecting  the  monasteries  of  her  monks.  They 
stood  in  the  lone  wilderness  as  the  outposts  of  a 
renascent  Christian  civiHzation.  Except  for  her, 
Europe  might  still  to-day  be  plunged  in  a  savagery 
such  as  existed  on  the  continent  of  America  before 
the  Cross  was  planted  there  by  the  hand  of  Colum- 
bus. With  the  fall  o.f  Constantinople,  the  last 
isle  of  ancient  learning  would  then  have  been 
swallowed  up  in  the  barbarian  deluge.  All  the 
culture  of  Rome  and  Greece  would  not  merely 
have  been  buried  amid  the  ruins  of  the  ancient 
world,  unknelled,  uncoffined  and  unsung,  but  even 
unchronicled  and  unremembered  forevermore. 
History  itself  would  have  ceased  to  be  with  the 
passing  of  the  world's  literature,  its  art  and  archi- 
tecture. As  Professor  Thomas  Nixon  Carver  of 
Harvard  University  rightly  says  of  the  great  work, 
economic,  social  and  religious,  of  her  pioneer 
monks : 

One  must  not  be  unmindful  of  the  splendid  service  per- 
formed by  the  monks  of  an  earlier  day  in  preserving  the 
learning  of  the  ancient  world  and  handing  it  down  to  the 
newer  civilization  of  modern  Europe  and  America.  Their 
part  in  the  civilizing  of  the  rude  barbarians  of  northern  Eu- 
rope entitles  them  to  the  respect  of  all  mankind.  The  labor- 
ing monks  especially  call  for  our  admiration.  The  clearing 
of  the  land,  the  draining  of  the  swamps,  the  preservation  of 
the  arts  of  horticulture  and  agriculture,  and  the  further  de- 
velopment of  both,  was  constructive  work  of  the  very  highest 
order.     Moreover,  it  was  performed  at  a  time  when  construe- 


RECASTING   THE    WORLD  49 

tive   industry  was   all   but  submerged   by  the  general   brutality 
and   violence  which  prevailed  over  the  whole  of  Europe.^ 

Thus  in  that  new  civilization  labor  was  human- 
ized, sanctified,  dignified.  The  concept  of  Chris- 
tian democracy  sprang  up  anew  with  the  Catholic 
Church,  a  democracy  of  labor  and  industry  so  far 
as  the  world  was  then  prepared  to  receive  it. 
Greatest  of  all  civilizers  in  this  early  age  were 
the  Benedictine  missionaries.  Almost  every  prov- 
ince invaded  by  the  barbarians  was  in  turn  in- 
vaded and  conquered  for  Christianity  and  civiliza- 
tion by  these  heroic  munks,  in  whom  we  behold 
personified  the  highest  ideal  of  both  labor  and 
learning.  More  eloquent  than  many  volumes  is 
the  mere  mention  of  the  great  Benedictine  civi- 
lizers of  the  modern  world: 

Augustine  in  England;  Boniface  in  Germany;  Anschar  and 
Aubert  in  Scandinavia;  Suitbert  and  Willibrod  in  Holland; 
Amandus,  Remaclus  and  Ursmar  in  Belgium;  Ruppert,  Em- 
meran  and  Virgilius  in  Bavaria  and  Austria;  Adalbert  and 
Anastasius  in  Bohemia;  Pilgrim  and  Wolfgang  in  Hungary; 
Gall  and  Pirmin  in  Switzerland;  Leander  and  Isidor  in  Spain; 
Bruno  in  Prussia  and  Benno  among  the  Slavs,  and  finally  Law- 
rence Kalffon  and  Rudolph  in  Iceland  are  all  names  of  great 
Benedictines  who  must  be  regarded  as  the  first  to  lead  the 
nations  from  the  darkness  of  paganism  to  the  light  of  the 
Christian  faith  and  to  the  blessings  of  a  civilized  life.  It  is 
estimated  that  in  France  alone  about  three-eighths  of  the  towns 
owe  their  existence  to  the  work  of  the  Benedictine  monks.^ 

1  "  The  Foundations  of  National  Prosperity,"  by  Richard  T. 
Ely,  Ralph  H.  Hess,  Charles  K.  Leith  and  Thomas  Nixon  Car- 
ver, p.  306. 

2  Dom  Maternus  Spitz,  O.  S.  B.,  "  The  Order  of  St.  Benedict 
and  the  Foreign  Missions,"   Catholic  Missions,  Dec,   1917. 


50  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

If  therefore  we  behold  the  earth  emerging  again 
from  its  deluge  of  barbarism  it  is  due  to  these 
men  of  God  and  their  fellows  in  the  Faith.  At 
the  first  view  of  the  resurgent  world  we  see  man- 
kind groping  about  once  more  in  the  most  primi- 
tive stages  of  material  development.  Slavery  had 
naturally  again  been  introduced  by  the  barbarian. 
For  a  second  time  the  Church  became  a  mighty 
factor  in  bringing  about  its  gradual  disappear- 
ance. Her  first  act  indeed  was  to  stay  the  bloody 
hand  of  savage  violence.  As  Agnes  Wergeland, 
former  Professor  of  History  at  the  University  of 
Wyoming,  writes,  her  ministers  preferred  "  see- 
ing the  prisoner  of  war,  the  unredeemed  hostage, 
the  exiled  culprit,  enslaved  rather  than  killed."  ^ 
While  there  was  life,  there  was  hope  for  the  un- 
fortunates and  the  possibility  of  still  aiding  them. 
She  next  successfully  bettered  their  lot  and  loos- 
ened their  bonds.  And  finally,  in  large  measure 
through  the  very  force  of  her  teaching,  slavery 
gave  way  to  serfdom. 

We  must  remember  that  in  the  barbaric  as  in 
the  classical  pagan  society  the  slave  could  not  be 
married,  he  had  no  personal  rights  which  the 
master  was  bound  to  respect  and  no  place  in  so- 
ciety. Both  in  Germanic  and  Roman  law  he  was 
*'  on  the  level  of  cattle  and  other  mobilia."  Need 
we  wonder,  then,  to  behold  him  brutalized  and 

•  Agnes  Mathilde  Wergeland,  "  Slavery  in  Germanic  Society 
during  the  Middle  Ages,"  p.   i6. 


RECASTING   THE    WORLD  5 1 

degraded  under  the  new  paganism  as  under  the 
old?  Marked  by  the  collar  about  his  neck,  his 
closely  cropped  and  bristly  hair,  his  often  de- 
formed and  mutilated  body,  and  his  branded  and 
scarred  skin,  the  slave  was  indeed  an  object  of 
pity  under  paganism.^  The  mightiest  influence 
to  come  to  his  relief  was  that  of  the  Church, 
though  she  could  not  at  once  transform  the  spirit 
of  the  barbarian  conquerors.  As  the  author  last 
quoted  says : 

Another  stronghold  of  hope  for  the  slave  was  the  power  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church.  What  the  king  represented  within 
the  political  sphere  the  bishop  represented  within  the  moral. 
There  is  no  doubt  that,  but  for  the  constant  good  offices  of  the 
Church  through  her  ministers,  the  improvement  in  the  condi- 
tion of  the  slave  would  have  been  of  far  slower  growth.  The 
bishop,  of  course,  could,  as  little  as  the  king,  interfere  with 
actual  ownership  or  abolish  slavery;  but  he  tried  to  exercise 
a  religious  as  well  as  a  practical  pressure  upon  the  slave- 
holder. On  the  one  side,  mild  treatment  of  the  slave  was  al- 
ways spoken  of  as  one  of  the  important  evidences  of  a  Chris- 
tian spirit;  on  the  other  side,  the  churches  and  monasteries 
were  recognized  places  of  refuge  for  the  fugitive  or  abused 
slave,  the  priest  or  abbot  before  giving  the  slave  over  exact- 
ing an  oath  or  promise  from  the  slave-owner  not  to  do  their 
refugee  further  harm.^ 

Many  quotations  from  different  Councils  can 
be  given  to  this  effect.  Yet  various  churches  and 
ecclesiastics,  as  we  know,  were  large  slaveholders. 
This  is  not  surprising.     "  In  this  respect,  as  in" 

*  Ibid.,  p.  23. 

'^  Ibid.,  pp.  60,  61. 


52  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

many  others,  the  Church  [by  which  word  the  writer 
refers  to  the  individual  churches,  with  their  ma- 
terial needs]  had  to  conform  to  the  economic  con- 
ditions of  the  time."  Yet  it  everywhere  remained 
true  that :  "  In  holding  slaves  as  cultivators  of  her 
enormous  estates  the  Church  made  servitude  as 
comfortable  an  existence  as  it  could  ever  be- 
come." ^  To  this  there  was  no  exception.  If 
monastery  lands  were  used  for  selfish  purposes,  it 
could  be  done  only  in  opposition  to  the  teachings 
and  the  spirit  of  the  Church  herself.  "  Their 
ideal  was  not  wealth,  but  welfare,"  says  Father 
Bernard  Vaughan,  referring  to  these  monks. 
"  They  themselves  being  workers  on  the  land 
knew  how  to  sympathize  with  fellow  toilers." 
This  remained  true  to  the  end. 

Thus  always  the  doctrines  and  principles  of  the 
Catholic  Church  were  the  very  foundation  of  the 
new  spirit  of  liberty  that  was  to  humanize  the 
slave,  safeguard  his  human  rights  and  finally  con- 
tribute so  mightily  to  the  destruction  of  slavery 
itself,  and  to  bringing  the  world  daily  nearer  to 
the  true  ideals  of  Christian  democratic  industry. 
It  was  from  her  monasteries  that  learning  and  art 
went  forth  over  all  the  earth  together  with  agri- 
culture and  the  crafts.  They  were  everywhere 
the  great  centers  of  civilization  not  only  from  a 
religious,  literary  and  social  point  of  view,  but 
also   in   a   purely   economic  and   industrial  way. 

'  Ibid.,  p.  63. 


RECASTING   THE   WORLD  53 

"  As  the  monasteries,"  says  the  great  German  his- 
torian, Johannes  Janssen,  "  had  been  for  centuries 
the  schools  of  agriculture  and  horticulture,  so  too 
they  were  the  actual  nurseries  of  all  industrial  and 
artistic  progress.  It  was  in  these  institutions  that 
handicrafts  first  developed  into  art."  "^  To  the 
same  effect  Huber-Liebenau  writes:  "Immedi- 
ately upon  the  spread  of  Christianity  churches  and 
monasteries  arose,  and  the  latter  were,  until  the 
fourteenth  century,  the  nurseries  of  German 
industry  and  German  art,"  *  The  same  was  true 
of  every  other  land.  Thus,  to  quote  but  a  single 
instance  where  a  volume  might  be  filled  with  elo- 
quent testimonies,  the  historian  of  Belgium  writes : 

If  the  conversion  to  the  Catholic  Faith  was  mainly  the  task 
of  the  missionaries,  the  introduction  of  civilization  was  mainly 
the  task  of  monasteries.  There  the  Benedictine  monks  played  a 
very  large  part,  both  as  civilizers  and  colonizers.  Their  monas- 
teries were,  from  the  sixth  century  on,  centers  of  economic  and 
intellectual  life.  Whilst  some  of  their  monks  attacked  the  thick 
forests  of  southern  and  central  Belgium  with  axes,  others  en- 
gaged in  literary  labors  in  the  monasteries'  libraries,  transcrib- 
ing the  ancient  Greek  and  Latin  manuscripts,  composing  hymns 
and  lives  of  saints,  and  opening  schools  for  the  education  of  the 
people.  They  planted  in  the  very  hearts  of  the  people  the  roots 
of  that  strong  religious  spirit,  which  has  steadily  developed  and 
which  has  become  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the  national 
spirit  of  Belgium. 

Each  monastery  became  a  kind  of  model  farm,  where  the 
population  of  the  neighborhood  could  learn  the  best  agricultural 
methods.     In  the  monastery,  too,  they  could  find  physicians  who 

^  "  History  of  the  German  People,"  II,  p.  2. 

^"  Das  Deutsche  Zunftinesen  im  Mittelalter,"  p.  16. 


54  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

knew  how  to  take  care  of  the  sick.  The  monastery,  being  pro- 
tected by  the  respect  that  was  inspired  by  the  saint  to  whom  it 
was  dedicated,  was  also  a  place  of  safety  in  time  of  danger. 
Consequently,  dwellings  became  more  and  more  numerous 
around  the  monasteries,  and  villages  developed  under  their  in- 
fluence and  protection.® 

More  than  this,  while  in  many  places  the  newly 
formed  towns  were  forced  to  struggle  for  their 
liberties,  or  obtained  them  only  after  long  de- 
lays, those  founded  by  bishops  and  abbots,  says 
Carlton  J.  H.  Hayes,  "  received  charters  at  the 
very  outset."  ^^  So  everywhere  liberty  went 
forth  from  the  sanctuary  close  and  the  monastery 
walls  in  the  meet  company  of  learning  and  of  la- 
bor. 

"  The  movement  for  democracy  in  England  was 
started  by  a  monk,"  was  the  statement  made  in 
the  Bible  Room  of  Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn, 
by  so  "  advanced  "  a  Protestant  minister  as  the 
Rev.  Dr.  Newell  Dwight  Hillis.  "They  (the 
monks)  carried  civilization  and  Christianity  in 
their  arms,  right  during  the  Middle  Ages  and 
down  to  our  times."  ^^  The  light  of  historic  truth 
is  gradually  breaking  through  the  darkness  that 
had  so  long  overclouded  the  post-Reformation 
mind.  With  the  passing  of  old  prejudices  the 
facts  of  the  past  are  emerging  in  the  dawn  of  a 
clearer  day.     When  the  walls  of  Rheims  Cathe- 

•  Leon  Van  Der  Essen,  "  History  of  Belgium." 

10  "  A  Political  and  Social  History  of  Europe,"  I,  p.  37. 

11  Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle,  April  5,  1919. 


RECASTING   THE    WORLD  55 

dral  trembled  to  the  shock  of  the  exploding  shells 
the  world  with  one  voice  acknowledged  that  it 
could  not  equal  or  reproduce  the  glory  of  those 
monuments  of  art  the  Middle  Ages  had  be- 
queathed to  us. 


CHAPTER     VII 

SERFDOM  AND  THE  CHURCH 

THE  slavery  described  in  the  preceding 
chapter  was  already  shading  off  imper- 
ceptibly into  a  state  of  serfdom.  Eco- 
nomic and  religious  reasons  often  combined  to 
bring  about  the  passing  away  of  slavery.  Where 
economic  conditions  had  already  prepared  the  way, 
as  in  the  Roman  days  when  the  masters  of  landed 
estates  often  found  it  more  conducive  to  their  in- 
terests permanently  to  settle  certain  slaves  upon 
the  land  and  transform  them  into  serfs,  the 
Church  utilized  her  opportunities  in  still  further 
promoting  the  human  rights  of  the  unf  ree  laborer. 
So  too,  after  the  days  of  the  barbarian  conquest, 
it  was  through  the  influence  of  the  Church  that 
the  personality  of  the  slave  came  to  be  more  re- 
ligiously respected  and  his  family  rights  were 
rendered  inviolate.  A  legal  status  was  gradually 
assured  him.  He  was  granted  property  and  even 
land. 

The  serf  of  the  Middle  Ages  could  no  longer 
be  sold,  although  the  soil  to  which  he  was  insep- 
arably attached  might  be  transferred  with  him  to 
another  lord.  For  his  own  benefit  and  for  the 
support    of    his    family    he    tilled    the    plot    of 

S6 


SERFDOM  AND   THE    CHURCH  57 

land  set  aside  for  him.  On  this  too  his  perma- 
nent home  was  built.  Though  certain  levies 
might  be  made  on  him  for  the  lord's  table,  his 
main  obligation  was  to  offer  a  more  or  less 
definite  proportion  of  his  labor-time  to  the  service 
of  his  master.  Such  was  the  essence  of  serfdom, 
at  least  in  its  latter  stages. 

While  in  the  early  days  serfdom  was  but  a 
mitigation  of  slavery,  and  often  very  similar  to 
it,  we  find  it  developing  anew  at  a  later  time  as 
a  consequence  of  military  necessity  among  pre- 
viously free  populations.  In  fact,  this  entire  pe- 
riod seems  to  be  largely  covered  with  a  haze  of 
uncertainty.  Free  owners  of  land  may  in  many 
instances  have  voluntarily  assumed  a  condition  of 
dependence  which  preserved  them  from  the  vio- 
lence of  pirates  and  freebooters  and  thus  assured 
them  the  yield  of  their  harvest,  not  to  mention  the 
personal  safety  accorded  by  this  means  to  them- 
selves and  to  their  families.  Their  land  itself 
would  naturally  pass  into  the  ownership  of  the 
lord.  How  far  this  accounts  for  the  widespread 
condition  of  serfdom  is  diflScult  to  say.  But  of  all 
this  the  following  chapter  shall  treat  more  fully. 

As  in  the  case  of  slavery,  so  in  that  of  serfdom 
the  Church  was  often  instrumental  in  again  lib- 
erating the  serfs  and  everywhere  successful  in  bet- 
tering their  condition.  She  provided  for  their 
moral  and  religious  welfare  and  for  the  enforce- 
ment   of    laws    protecting    them.     Economically 


58  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

their  lot  was  not  necessarily  bitter  or  hard.  Their 
person  and  property  were  to  be  their  own.  Even 
their  service  to  the  feudal  lord  was  more  and 
more  limited  and  was  definitely  restricted  to  cer- 
tain days,  aside  from  special  season  and  duties. 

To  render  the  serf  secure  in  his  tenure  of  the 
soil  the  Church  in  Germany  imposed  a  penance  of 
three  years'  duration  upon  the  master  who  arro- 
gated to  himself  the  right  of  selling  his  serf.  She 
made  no  distinction  between  the  killing  of  a  serf 
and  a  freeman.  In  England  likewise  special  pen- 
ances were  imposed  for  the  manslaughter  of  a 
serf  by  a  master.  The  Synod  of  Worms  renewed 
in  868  a  regulation  which  protected  the  serf  even 
when  guilty  of  capital  punishment.  "  If  any  one 
has  put  to  death,  without  judicial  sentence,  a  serf 
guilty  of  a  crime  that  is  punishable  by  death,  he  is 
to  atone  for  the  shedding  of  blood  by  a  penance 
of  two  years."  The  more  the  rights  of  the  serf 
were  imperiled,  the  more  the  Church  came  for- 
ward in  his  defense.  Not  only  did  she  protect 
him  against  the  abuse  of  power,  but  in  his  day  of 
need  she  took  him  to  her  bosom,  clothed,  fed  and 
sheltered  him. 

As  a  practical  illustration  of  the  success 
achieved  by  the  Church  in  the  liberation  of  the  serf 
as  well  as  of  the  slave  we  need  but  turn  to  the 
Anglo-Saxon  documents  of  England  which  have 
survived  the  wars  and  vicissitudes  of  more  than  a 
thousand  years. 


SERFDOM   AND  THE    CHURCH  59 

Slavery  was  still  the  universal  custom  of  the 
land  when  Catholicity  achieved  its  triumph. 
When  slavery  had  been  abolished  the  condition  of 
the  early  serf,  attached  to  the  soil,  differed  as  yet 
but  little  from  that  of  the  slave,  since  both  still 
remained  completely  at  the  mercy  of  their  mas- 
ters. The  Church  alone  was  interested  in  the 
fate  of  one  as  of  the  other.  But  to  abolish  serf- 
dom by  a  stroke  of  the  pen  was  no  more  possible 
than  it  had  been  to  abolish  slavery.  In  each  case 
churchmen  and  monks  accommodated  themselves 
to  the  economic  conditions  of  the  times  where  these 
were  not  considered  morally  wrong  in  themselves. 
But  as  in  apostolic  days,  so  now  the  Church  insisted 
upon  the  essential  equality  of  all  men  before  God, 
upon  the  precept  of  charity  and  the  doctrine  of 
universal  brotherhood,  and  in  particular  upon  the 
reward  of  mercy  to  be  accorded  to  him  who  freed 
a  brother  from  his  bonds.  Clerics  themselves  set 
the  example,  at  times  in  a  most  signal  manner. 
How  quickly  their  lesson  bore  fruit  is  evident  from 
the  constant  emancipation  of  slaves  and  serfs, 
often  in  great  numbers,  which  instantly  followed. 

That  such  actions  were  prompted  by  the  faith 
which  the  Church  had  preached  is  clear  from  the 
purely  spiritual  reasons  assigned  in  the  ancient 
documents  of  manumission.  "  Geatflaed  freed 
for  God's  sake  and  for  her  soul's  need,  Ecceard 
the  smith  and  Aelfstan  and  his  wife,  and  all  their 
offspring  born  and  unborn;  and  Arcil  and  Cole, 


60  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

and  Ecgferd  Eadhun's  daughter,  etc.,  etc.,"  reads 
a  characteristic  document.^ 

In  like  manner  Aelfred  manumitted  all  his  un- 
freed  dependents  "  in  the  name  of  God  and  of  His 
Saints,"  and  prayed  that  they  might  not  be  op- 
pressed by  any  of  his  heirs  or  kinsmen.  "  But  for 
God's  love  and  my  own  soul's  need  will  I  that  they 
shall  enjoy  their  freedom  and  their  choice;  and  I 
command  in  the  name  of  the  living  God  that  no 
one  disquiet  them,  either  by  demand  of  money  or 
in  any  other  way."  ^ 

Often  dreadful  curses  are  pronounced  upon  any 
one  who  would  dare  to  set  aside  such  dispositions, 
especially  when  made  in  a  last  will:  "  Christ 
blind  him  that  setteth  this  aside."  And  again: 
*'  Whoso  undoeth  this  may  he  have  the  wrath  of 
Almighty  God  and  Saint  Cuthbert."  Such  testa- 
tors had  often  during  life  been  very  kind  to  their 
serfs,  so  that  doubtless  in  many  cases  it  had  been 
preferable  to  remain  under  their  care  and  protec- 
tion. It  is  sufficiently  common  to  find  that  such 
masters  at  their  death  not  only  freed  their  serfs- 
but  provided  for  them  as  a  father  would  for  his 
children.  So  Durcytel  for  his  soul's  benefit  be- 
queathed a  great  part  of  his  landed  possessions  to 
the  church  of  St.  Edmund,  and  part  likewise  to  the 
bishop,  "  and  let  all  my  serfs  be  free,  and  let  each 

^  "  Codex  Diplomaticus,"  No.  925. 

2 "  Cod.  Dipt.,"  Vid.  Thorpe,  Kemble,  "  The  Saxons  in  Eng- 
land," I,  p.  504. 


SERFDOM   AND   THE    CHURCH  6 1 

have  his  toft,  and  his  meatcow  and  his  meat- 
corn."  ^ 

The  spiritual  benefits  asked  were  both  for  this 
life  and  for  the  next,  and  often  for  the  soul  of 
relative  or  friend:  "This  book  witnesseth  that 
Aelfwold  freed  Hwatu  at  St.  Petroc's  for  his  soul 
both  during  life  and  after  life."  *  "  And  I 
(Leofgyfu)  will  that  all  my  serfs  be  free,  both  in 
manor  and  farm,  for  my  sake  and  the  sake  of 
them  that  begot  me  (the  souls  of  his  parents)."  ^ 

It  was  moreover  in  the  church  and  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  priest  that  manumission  took  place. 
"  Here  witnesseth  on  this  book  of  Gospel,"  we 
read  in  the  record  of  the  monastery  of  Bath, 
"  that  Aelfric  the  Scot  and  Aethelric  the  Scot  are 
made  free  for  the  soul  of  Abbot  Aelfsige,  that 
they  may  be  free  forever.  This  is  done  by  wit- 
ness of  all  the  monastery."  ®  So  we  read  of 
Bishop  Wulfsige  freeing  a  number  of  serfs,  "  for 
Eadgar  the  King  and  for  his  own  soul,  at  St. 
Petroc's  altar."  '^  The  register  of  this  church  is 
preserved  for  us,  and  similar  books  of  manumis- 
sion were  evidently  kept  in  every  church,  like  the 
registers  of  baptisms  and  marriages. 

What  was  true  in  Saxon  England  was  no  less 
true  of  other  countries.     S.  Sugenheim,  in  his  his- 

8  "  Cod.  Dipl.,"  No.  959. 

*  Register,  St.  Petroc's  Church.    Kemble. 

^"Cod.  Dipl,"  No.  931. 

*"  Cod.  Dipl.,"  No.  1351. 

■'"Cod.  Dipl.,"  No.  981. 


62  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

tory  of  the  termination  of  serfdom  in  Europe,  re- 
peatedly makes  the  same  confession  in  spite  of 
inveterate  prejudices  against  the  Church,  He 
shows  how  in  France  the  influence  of  the  clergy 
was  not  seldom  used  to  free  the  serf,  or  at  least 
considerably  to  ease  his  burden.  The  frequent 
testamentary  emancipations  of  serfs,  often  in 
great  numbers,  were,  he  tells  us,  "  in  almost  every 
instance  the  work  of  pious  and  humane  confessors 
or  other  priests."  Like  all  historians,  he  admits 
the  truth  of  the  proverbial  saying  that  in  every 
land  it  was  well  to  dwell  under  episcopal  rule. 
Thus  in  Germany  dependent  church  laborers  were 
employed  in  their  duties  only  three  days  of  the 
week.  The  remaining  time  could  be  devoted 
freely  to  their  own  interests.  So  too  in  other 
countries  the  Church  led  the  way. 

In  France  the  emancipation  of  serfs  and  hereditary  tenants 
took  place  earliest  in  the  ecclesiastical  dominions,  where, 
indeed,  the  condition  of  the  dependent  classes  was  always  the 
most  favorable.* 

The  efforts  of  the  Church  to  ameliorate  the  lot 
of  the  serf  or  to  free  him  entirely  were,  he  be- 
lieves, perhaps  nowhere  more  glorious  than  in 
Scandinavia.  The  resolution  taken  by  Saint  Cnut 
to  abolish  serfdom  entirely  throughout  his  do- 
minion he  ascribes  solely  to  the  priesthood.  "  Of 
course,"  he  adds,  "  the  last  portion  of  the  eleventh 

*  Sugenheim,  "  Geschichte  der  Aufhebung  der  Leibeigenschaft 
und  Horigkeit  in  Europa,"  p.  90. 


SERFDOM   AND   THE    CHURCH  63 

century  was  not  yet  ripe  for  this.  The  clergy 
nevertheless  worked  with  indescribable  zeal  to 
hasten  the  time  for  it."  ®  The  institution  of  serf- 
dom, therefore,  in  spite  of  the  frequency  of  eman- 
cipation by  ecclesiastics  or  through  their  example 
and  exhortation,  could  not  at  once  be  abolished. 
Particularly  fortunate,  however,  were  the  laborers 
connected  with  religious  houses.  '*  Wherever 
monasteries  arose,"  says  Friederich  Hurter, 
"  progress  began,  the  condition  of  the  people  was 
improved  and  friendly  relations  with  dependents 
existed."  Oppression,  in  ecclesiastical  dominions, 
he  adds,  was  an  exception  and  freedom  could  be 
obtained  more  readily. ^^  Even  Socialist  authors, 
therefore,  when  prepared  to  make  independent 
and  unbiased  investigation  must  come  to  the  same 
conclusion.  "  The  Christian  Church,"  writes 
Thomas  Kirkup,  "  did  much  to  soften  and  to  abol- 
ish slavery  and  serfdom."  ^^ 

Not  only  did  bishops  and  priests,  by  their  word 
and  example,  everywhere  bring  about  a  kindlier 
treatment  and  even  the  emancipation  of  the  serfs, 
persistently  influence  legislation  in  their  favor, 
throw  about  their  person  the  protecting  power  of 
the  Church,  inspire  men  with  sentiments  of  justice 
and  affection  in  their  regard  as  for  true  children 

*  Ibid.,  p.  501. 

!•>  Cf.,  H.  Pesch,  S.  J.,  "  Liberalismus,  Socialismus  und  christ- 
liche  Geselschaftsordnung,"  pp.  664-685. 
11  "  History  of  Socialism,"  6th  ed.,  p.  45a 


64  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

of  God  and  brothers  in  Christ,  but  they  freely 
admitted  them  to  the  sacred  office  of  the  priest- 
hood. Indeed  there  was  no  dignity  within  the 
power  of  the  Church  to  bestow  which  might  not 
be  attained  by  the  humblest  serf.  The  Protestant 
Historian  Kemble  thus  writes  of  the  Catholic 
clergy  in  Anglo-Saxon  days: 

Whatever  their  class  interests  may  from  time  to  time  have 
led  them  to  do,  let  it  be  remembered  that  they  existed  as  a 
permanent  mediating  authority  between  the  rich  and  the  poor, 
the  strong  and  the  weak,  and  that,  to  their  eternal  honor,  they 
fully  comprehended  and  performed  the  duties  of  this  noble 
position.  To  none  but  them  would  it  have  been  permitted  to 
stay  the  strong  hand  of  power,  to  mitigate  the  just  severity 
of  the  law,  to  hold  out  a  glimmer  of  hope  to  the  serf,  to  find  a 
place  in  this  world  and  a  provision  for  the  destitute,  whose  ex- 
istence the  State  did  not  even  recognize.^^ 

From  what  has  already  been  said  we  are  not 
surprised  to  find  the  statement  made  by  this  most 
thorough  student  of  the  period  in  question  that  the 
lot  of  the  serf  "  was  not  necessarily  or  generally 
one  of  great  hardship.  It  seems  doubtful  whether 
the  labor  exacted  was  practically  more  severe,  or 
his  remuneration  much  less  than  that  of  an  agri- 
cultural laborer  in  this  country  (England)  at  this 
day  (A.  D.  1876)."  ^3  The  Rev.  J.  Malet  Lam- 
bert  expresses  a  similar  opinion  of  conditions  of 
servitude  at  a  later  date.  The  spiritual  and  even 
the  temporal  provisions  made   for  the   serf,   at- 

""The  Saxons  in  England,"  II,  pp.  374,  375. 
^' Ibid.,  I,  pp.  213,  214. 


SERFDOM    AND   THE    CHURCH  6$ 

tached,  according  to  the  custom  of  the  day,  to  the 
land  of  some  conscientious  Catholic  master,  might 
well  be  envied  by  countless  laborers  in  our  modern 
civilization. 

"  In  his  hard  life  the  serf  of  the  Middle 
Ages,"  says  von  Berthold  Missiaen,  O.  M.  Cap., 
"  experienced  a  sense  of  true  internal  happiness, 
more  lightsome  than  any  known  to  the  modern 
world  of  labor.  He  was  filled  with  a  living,  re- 
ligious faith,  and  felt  himself  possessed  of  a  strong, 
serious  moral  power."  Religion  had  spiritually 
liberated  him  and  made  him  a  freeman  of  God, 
the  peer  of  knight  and  earl  before  the  King  of 
kings. 

Faith,  indeed,  was  living  and  active  In  Anglo- 
Saxon  days.  We  behold  the  spectacle  of  kings  at 
the  height  of  their  glory  renouncing  all  their  tem- 
poral possessions  and  laying  aside  their  crowns 
to  devote  themselves  entirely  to  lives  of  self-re- 
nunciation; of  noble  ladies  and  princesses  retiring 
from  the  world  to  live  for  God  alone  in  the  se- 
clusion of  the  cloister;  of  men  of  influence  and 
power,  with  all  the  temptations  of  the  world  be- 
fore them,  thirsting  only  to  suffer  and  die  for 
Christ.  Such  a  spirit  of  necessity  reflected  upon 
the  economic  conditions  of  the  age.  Though  the 
time  had  not  yet  come  for  the  universal  emancipa- 
tion of  the  serf,  he  was  not  unfrequently  freed 
from  bondage,  as  we  have  seen,  and  always 
treated  with  far  greater  consideration  than  could 


66  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

have  been  shown  him  otherwise.  An  undeniable 
hardness  which  still  remained  in  certain  customs  of 
the  day  must  be  explained  by  the  difficulty  of  at 
once  obliterating  every  trace  of  pagan  spirit  and 
tradition,  and  by  the  life  of  constant  warfare  and 
danger  to  which  men  were  then  exposed.  To 
quote  once  more  from  the  pages  of  Kemble : 

It  was  especially  the  honor  and  glory  of  Christianity  that, 
while  it  broke  the  spiritual  bonds  of  sin,  it  ever  actively  la- 
bored to  relieve  the  heavy  burden  of  social  servitude.  We  are 
distinctly  told  that  Bishop  Wilfrid,  on  receiving  the  grant  of 
Selsey  from  Caedwealha,  of  Wessex,  immediately  manumitted 
two  hundred  and  fifty  unfortunates  whom  he  found  there  at- 
tached to  the  soil,  that  those  whom  by  Baptism  he  had  res- 
cued from  servitude  to  devils  might  by  the  grant  of  liberty 
be  rescued  from  servitude  to  man.  In  this  spirit  of  charity  the 
clergy  obtained  respite  from  labor  for  the  serf  on  the  Sab- 
bath, on  certain  high  festivals  and  on  the  days  which  pre- 
ceded or  followed  them.  The  lord  who  compelled  his  serf 
to  labor  between  the  sunset  on  Saturday  and  the  sunset  on 
Sunday  forfeited  him  altogether;  probably  first  to  the  king  or 
the  geref a ;  but  in  the  time  of  Cnut,  the  serf  thus  forfeited  was 
to  become  folkfree.  To  their  merciful  intervention  it  must 
also  be  ascribed  that  the  will  of  a  Saxon  proprietor,  laic  as 
well  as  clerical,  so  constantly  directed  the  manumission  of  a 
number  of  serfs  for  the  soul's  health  of  the  testator.^* 

The  first  duty  of  the  Church,  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind,  was  not  to  free  the  slave  or  serf,  but  to  save 
his  soul.  Her  chief  effort,  which  was  to  be  car- 
ried out  in  the  face  of  all  resistance,  was  to  pro- 
cure for  him  conditions  under  which  ample  leisure 
and  opportunity  might  be  afforded  him  to  serve 

^*  Ibid.,  II,   pp.  211,   212. 


SERFDOM   AND    THE    CHURCH  67 

God  becomingly  and  even  perfectly.  Equally 
with  lord  and  king,  he  was  declared  by  her  to  be  in 
all  truth  her  own  spiritual  child,  sanctified  in  Holy 
Baptism,  strengthened  by  the  reception  of  her  Sac- 
raments, made  partaker  of  the  same  eucharistic 
Christ  in  the  sacrifice  of  the  Mass,  destined  to  an 
eternal  fellowship  with  angels  and  saints,  and  al- 
ready emancipated  by  the  grace  of  God  from  the 
one  slavery  which  alone  Is  supremely  terrible,  the 
bondage  of  sin  and  Satan. 

Here  then  was  that  potent  seed  of  Christian 
liberty  already  striking  root.  Within  it  were  con- 
tained all  the  elements  of  a  perfect  social  order. 
Bourgeoning  forth  centuries  later,  in  a  soil  pre- 
pared by  ages  of  Catholic  culture,  it  was  to  blossom 
at  length  into  the  world's  most  ideal  democracy, 
a  true  brotherhood  in  commerce  and  Industry, 
made  perfect  In  the  unity  of  that  one  faith  which 
Christ  had  founded. 


CHAPTER     VIII 

THE  FEUDAL  AND  MANORIAL  SYSTEMS 

DURING  the  early  ages  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion trade  gilds  among  our  first  Christian 
freemen  were  long  to  remain  impossible 
for  the  simple  reason  that  specialized  trades  were 
not  sufficiently  developed  among  them.  The  ear- 
liest gilds  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  therefore  re- 
ligious and  social  in  their  nature.  Often  they 
were  mainly  devoted  to  the  preservation  of  order 
and  peace  at  a  time  when  marauding  and  violence 
were  common,  when  governments,  as  we  have 
seen,  were  not  yet  centralized,  and  when  the  great 
cities  of  the  future  were  only  in  their  first  process 
of  formation  or  development. 

Civilization  from  the  eighth  to  the  eleventh 
century  was  indeed  as  remote  from  our  own  in 
kind  as  in  time.  The  method  of  production  which 
then  prevailed  is  known  to-day  as  the  Family  Sys- 
tem. Its  essential  feature  consisted  in  the  fact 
that  each  household  produced  all  that  was  needed 
for  its  own  consumption  without  the  aid  of  ex- 
ternal agents.  It  was  to  be  followed  in  the  course 
of  economic  development  by  the  gild  system,  the 
domestic  system,  and  lastly  by  the  stage  of  pro- 
duction, technically  known  as  the  factory  system, 

68 


THE    FEUDAL   AND   MANORIAL    SYSTEMS       69 

which  continued  unbroken   to   the   World  War. 

Life,  in  its  economic  aspect,  was  almost  entirely 
agricultural.  Near  the  little  village  were  the 
fields  where  each  family  cultivated  the  strips  of 
land  assigned  to  it  or  owned  by  it.  There  were 
meadowlands  where  the  cattle  were  pastured  in 
common,  and  forests  where  each  villager  might 
gather  or  cut  the  wood  that  was  needed.  Under 
the  most  fully  developed  system  in  England,  each 
family  owned  a  number  of  narrow  strips  of  land, 
not  adjoining  each  other,  but  scattered  over  en- 
tirely different  sections  of  the  fields  reserved  for 
cultivation.  No  one  could  thus  receive  only  the 
most  fertile  or  only  the  poorest  soil.  Every  one 
might  have  a  fair  proportion  of  both. 

At  the  period  when  this  system  had  reached  its 
complete  development  each  strip  was  sown  suc- 
cessively with  a  fall  crop  the  first  year  and  a  spring 
crop  the  next,  while  the  third  year  it  was  permitted 
to  lie  fallow.  The  result  was  an  abundance  of 
all  the  necessaries  of  life,  if  no  disaster  occurred 
to  ruin  the  crops.  Each  family  produced  inde- 
pendently all  that  was  needed  for  existence,  for 
clothing,  food  and  shelter.  The  Church  provided 
in  her  turn  for  every  spiritual  want.  The  system 
was  not  ideal,  neither,  however,  was  it  deplorable 
as  conditions  often  existing  in  more  modern  times. 
The  evils  of  the  city  slums  were  then  unknown. 
The  poet  Goldsmith  thus  pictures  it  in  his  "  De- 
serted Village  " : 


70  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

A  time  there  was  ere  England's  griefs  began, 
When   every  rood  of   ground  maintained   its  man: 
For  him  light  labor  spread  her  wholesome  store, 
Just  gave  what  life  required  but  gave  no  more: 
His  best  companions,  innocence  and  health; 
And  his  best  riches,  ignorance  of  wealth. 

How  far  or  how  long  this  developed  form  of 
organization,  in  which  cooperation  and  private 
ownership  were  combined,  existed  under  the  dem- 
ocratic control  of  free  farmers  will  doubtless  be 
difficult  to  say.  In  the  period  when  we  find  this 
system  of  cultivation  widely  employed  throughout 
England,  Germany,  France,  Hungary  and  other 
countries,  the  land  is  usually  in  the  possession  of 
a  lord,  whose  residence  is  known  as  the  manor. 
It  may  be  merely  a  substantial  dwelling  or  else 
a  lordly  castle  overlooking  the  humble  thatched 
roofs  of  the  villagers  beneath.  The  estate  of  a 
single  nobleman  might  at  times  consist  not  merely 
of  a  single  manor,  with  its  group  of  farms  that 
formed  a  primitive  village,  but  of  many  such  man- 
ors extending  over  a  great  tract  of  land  or  an  en- 
tire district.  Hence  the  name  under  which  this 
phase  of  feudalism  is  commonly  known,  the  Man- 
orial System.^ 

While  there  were  still  independent  farmers  and 
tenant  farmers,  the  majority  of  the  population  in 
the  Norman  days  of  England  came  to  be  known 

1  Carlton  J.  H.  Hayes,  "  A  Political  and  Social  History  of 
Europe,"  I,  pp.  28-36. —  Thomas  Nixon  Carver,  "Principles  of 
Rural  Economics,"  pp.  37-44. —  James  E.  Thorold  Rogers. 


THE    FEUDAL   AND   MANORIAL    SYSTEMS         7 1 

as  *'  villeins,"  a  name  significantly  derived  from 
"  villagers."  They  were  not  slaves,  since  they 
could  neither  be  sold  nor  deprived  of  their  right 
to  cultivate  for  themselves  the  strips  of  land  which 
they  tilled  for  their  exclusive  benefit.  Neither 
were  they  tenant  farmers,  since  they  paid  no  rent 
for  the  land  which  they  used  and  handed  on  to 
their  children  to  be  tilled  by  them  in  turn  for  their 
own  benefit,  as  an  inalienable  right.  Neither  how- 
ever were  they  free,  since  they  were  "  attached  to 
the  soil  "  on  which  they  were  bound  to  stay. 
They  were  serfs,  therefore,  yet  their  status,  ap- 
parently, was  superior  to  that  of  this  class  among 
the  early  Anglo-Saxons. 

In  lieu  of  rent,  since  money  was  not  then  in 
circulation,  they  rendered  personal  service  to  their 
lord.  A  portion  of  arable  land,  reserved  for  the 
latter,  was  known  as  the  "  demesne."  Here  two 
or  three  days  of  the  week  the  villein  worked  for 
his  master,  besides  performing  other  duties  as 
emergency  might  suggest,  known  as  corvee.  So 
too  he  afforded  assistance  to  his  lord  at  harvest 
time  in  what  were  then  called  the  "boon-days,"  be- 
sides supplying  him  with  certain  provisions.  Such 
therefore  was  the  institution  of  villeinage,  the 
more  modern  form  of  serfdom.  At  times,  how- 
ever, the  villein  preferred  to  render  up  his  personal 
lands,  and  to  labor  exclusively  for  the  lord  on  his 
own  farm  or  in  his  home,  retaining  possibly  a  small 
plot  of  ground  and  a  garden  for  himself  and  his 


72  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

family.  Special  classes  of  small  tenants  were  the 
bordars,  crofters  and  cotters.  In  the  beginning  a 
class  of  slaves  still  existed,  but  these  soon  disap- 
peared. 

In  Germany,  as  also  in  France,  there  gradually 
developed  the  Great  Mdierhofe,  with  their  num- 
bers of  unfree  laborers,  the  Horige  cultivating  the 
farms  of  the  lords,  and  the  Diensthorige  attend- 
ing to  housework  and  craftsmanship.  Even  from 
the  earliest  times,  according  to  Walther  Miiller, 
the  latter  might  labor  for  their  own  profits  when 
the  domestic  needs  of  their  lords  were  satisfied. 
The  manorial  system  in  Germany  will  be  dealt 
with  more  in  detail  in  Chapter  X  of  the  present 
volume,  "  Labor  under  Charlemagne  and  After." 

The  origin  of  the  great  power  given  to  the 
lord  has  already  been  accounted  for.  The  early 
settlements  of  the  newly  emerging  civilization 
found  themselves  exposed  to  attacks  from  all  sides. 
There  were  not  only  the  marauding  bands  of  rob- 
bers infesting  the  forests  and  ready  at  all  times 
for  pillage  and  plunder,  but  the  pirate  crews  that 
everywhere  sailed  the  high  seas  and,  like  the 
Homeric  heroes  of  old,  swooped  down  on  the  de- 
fenseless villages  as  their  lawful  prize,  to  rob, 
massacre  or  enslave  the  unfortunate  inhabitants. 
Such  was  a  gentleman's  profession  among  the 
pagan  Vikings.  It  was  necessary  therefore  for 
men  to  group  about  a  powerful  leader  and  to  se- 
cure the  protection  which  in  times  of  raid  could 


THE    FEUDAL   AND  MANORIAL   SYSTEMS         73 

be  offered  by  the  lordly  manor  and  the  unscale- 
able  walls  of  a  medieval  castle.  Its  master  was 
fighter  and  captain  by  profession.  There  too 
were  the  trained  men  of  arms  and  the  weapons 
ever  ready  at  hand.  It  was  therefore  the  neces- 
sary center  of  organization  and  defense,  and  the 
villagers  gladly  offered,  in  return  for  the  protec- 
tion accorded  them,  the  service  of  their  toil  on 
stated  days  and  in  certain  seasons. 

Governments  were  not  as  yet  evolved  and  cen- 
tralized, so  that  men  would  look  in  vain  for  as- 
sistance to  the  King.  Their  own  lord  was  their 
natural  and  willing  defender,  while  he  himself 
rendered  fealty  to  a  still  greater  lord,  on  whose 
help  he  might  be  forced  to  call  at  any  moment  of 
extreme  peril  and  in  whom  he  could  find  a  new 
center  of  a  wider  and  far  more  powerful  organiza- 
tion. Thus  every  man  gave  obedience  and  hom- 
age to  one  above  him  to  secure  the  measure  of  co- 
operation required  for  self-defense. 

This  therefore  is  the  much-maligned  feudal 
system  which  was  a  real  blessing  and  necessity  in 
its  origin,  and  like  every  other  system  proved  a 
burden  and  a  just  cause  of  discontent  when  its 
usefulness  had  ceased  and  its  very  reason  for  ex- 
istence had  passed  away.  This  time  arrived  when 
the  King  himself  was  able  to  defend  his  realm 
and  preserve  law  and  order.  The  nobility,  which 
had  steadily  grown  in  power  and  wealth,  now 
merely  lived  upon  the  toil  of  the  peasantry  with- 


74  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

out  rendering  any  adequate  service  in  return. 
Hence  the  peasants  often  sought  their  freedom  by 
fleeing  to  the  newly  founded  cities,  when  these 
gradually  developed,  or  at  times  rose  in  arms 
against  their  lords.  Such  was  the  bloody  Peas- 
ants' War  which  practically  ended  for  the  time  the 
growth  of  the  Reformation.  In  defense  of  his 
own  princes  Luther  threw  the  weight  of  his  per- 
sonal power  against  the  German  serfs  who  had 
arisen  against  their  lords  and  so  crushed  their 
hopes  of  freedom  for  generations  to  come.  This 
they  neither  forgot  nor  forgave.  Catholic  as 
well  as  Protestant  princes  had  misused  their  power 
and  driven  their  serfs  to  desperation. 

In  many  cases  the  serfs  purchased  their  own 
liberty.  Personal  service  rendered  by  them  to  the 
lord  was  gradually  replaced  to  a  great  extent  by 
money  payment  or  they  became  hired  laborers. 
In  France  the  great  majority  of  the  serfs  had  al- 
ready purchased  their  freedom  by  the  fourteenth 
century,  although  in  some  few  districts  serfdom 
survived  until  the  French  Revolution.  In  Eng- 
land it  had  practically  disappeared  by  the  six- 
teenth century.  In  various  other  countries  it  was 
retained  until  the  nineteenth  century,  and  in  Rus- 
sia even  until  the  latter  half  of  that  century. 

The  institutions  here  described  naturally  be- 
came more  and  more  tyrannical  and  oppressive  as 
they  outlived  their  usefulness.  Yet  even  in  their 
decline   during  the   later   period   of  the   Middle 


THE    FEUDAL    AND   MANORIAL    SYSTEMS         75 

Ages  they  were  preferable  to  conditions  existing 
in  modern  cities  during  the  "  progressive  "  nine- 
teenth century.  "  Feudalism,"  admits  Percy 
Stickney  Grant,  "  gave  the  serf  food,  shelter  and 
clothing  in  exchange  for  his  labor  and  his  military 
service.  The  serf  had  his  stated  place.  He  was 
a  small  partner  in  the  concern  and  shared  its 
profits." 

He  then  compares  it  with  the  wage  system  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  latter:  "  In  time  of  war 
the  State  can  take  over  the  worker's  industrial  or 
military  service,  but  in  time  of  peace  it  does  not 
insure  him  subsistence."  ^ 

The  general  method  of  production  during  the 
early  Middle  Ages  was  everywhere  the  same,  in 
so  far  at  least  that  each  household,  as  we  have 
seen,  produced  for  itself  whatever  it  needed  to 
satisfy  its  own  wants,  without  recourse  to  external 
manufactures.  A  few  simple  luxuries  might  at 
intervals  be  purchased  by  the  lord  of  the  manor 
or  might  later  also  find  their  way  to  the  home  of 
the  peasant,  but  for  the  rest  each  family,  or  fam- 
ily group,  such  as  manor  or  monastery,  was  pro- 
ducer and  consumer  alike.  It  felled  the  trees  to 
build  its  dwellings.  It  spun  the  wool  to  make  its 
garments.  It  planted  and  ground  the  corn  to 
bake  its  own  bread.  With  meadow  and  forest 
open  to  it,  with  its  cattle,  though  not  of  registered 
breed,  and  its  hives  of  bees,  such  as  Virgil  sang, 

2  "  Fair  Play  for  the  Worker,"  p.  22. 


76  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

it  might  feast  on  the  Scriptural  butter  and  honey, 
and  live  contentedly  arid  happily  in  its  state  of  the 
*'  simple  life."  Such  was  the  bright  side  of  this 
early  life  which  had  likewise  its  shadows  and 
gloom.     And  yet,  as  Carlton  J.  H.  Hayes  says : 

On  the  other  hand  we  must  not  forget  that  the  tenement 
houses  of  our  great  cities  have  been  crowded  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  with  people  more  miserable  than  ever  was 
serf  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  serf,  at  any  rate,  had  the  open 
air  instead  of  a  factory  in  which  to  work.  When  times  were 
good  he  had  grain  and  meat  in  plenty,  and  possibly  wine  or 
cider,  and  he  hardly  envied  the  tapestried  chambers,  the  be- 
jeweled  clothes,  and  the  spiced  foods  of  the  nobility,  for  he 
looked  upon  them  as  belonging  to  a  different  world. 

In  one  place  noblemen  and  peasant  met  on  a  common  foot- 
ing—  in  the  village  church.  There,  on  Sundays  and  feast- 
days,  they  came  together  as  Christians  to  hear  Mass ;  and  after- 
wards, perhaps,  holiday  games  and  dancing  on  the  green,  be- 
nignantly  patronized  by  the  lord's  family,  helped  the  common 
folk  to  forget  their  labors.  The  village  priest,  himself  often 
of  humble  birth,  though  the  most  learned  man  on  the  manor, 
was  at  once  the  friend  and  benefactor  of  the  poor  and  the 
spiritual  doctor  of  the  lord.  Occasionally  a  visit  of  the  bishop 
to  administer  confirmation  to  the  children  afforded  an  oppor- 
tunity for  gaiety  and  universal  festivity.' 

Not  a  few  of  the  English  manors,  like  similar 
establishments  upon  the  continent,  were  in  the 
possession  of  monasteries  or  of  ecclesiastics.  In 
the  former  case  they  may  have  been  left  to  com- 
munities of  religious  by  the  wills  of  the  Faithful 
or  were  bestowed  upon  them  by  the  liberality  of 

8" A  Political  and  Social  History  of  Europe,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  35, 
36. 


THE    FEUDAL   AND   MANCXRIAL    SYSTEMS         77 

kings  or  nobles.  Churchmen  and  religious  in 
such  instances  simply  conformed  to  the  universal 
custom  of  their  day.  Whatever  greed  or  ambi- 
tion existed  on  the  part  of  certain  powerful  pre- 
lates or  abbots,  it  was  the  individual  alone  that 
was  at  fault.  The  monks  themselves  were,  as  a 
class,  loved  by  the  people.  Of  this  we  have  abund- 
ant historical  evidence.  They  were  truly  the 
stewards  of  the  poor  and  their  doors  were  ever 
open  to  the  houseless  wanderer.  Referring  to  the 
Religious  Orders  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries,  an  Anglican  historian,  the  Very  Rev.  W. 
R.  W.  Stephens,  formerly  Dean  of  Winchester, 
writes : 

They  were  large  landowners,  and  this  was  in  many  ways  a 
benefit  to  the  people.  The  monks  were  continually  resident, 
whereas  the  bishops  and  many  of  the  lay  proprietors  were  fre- 
quently called  away  from  their  estates  on  public  affairs,  and 
so  hindered  from  looking  closely  after  the  welfare  of  their 
tenants.  In  districts  where  the  towns  were  rare  and  small, 
the  monastic  houses  must  have  been  inestimable  boons,  not 
only  to  the  traveler,  who  could  obtain  food  and  shelter  there, 
but  to  the  resident  poor  in  the  neighborhood.  The  condition 
of  the  people  in  many  a  secluded  village  or  hamlet  would 
have  been  wretched  and  barbarous  in  the  extreme  but  for 
some  monastic  houses  which  had  the  means  of  remunerating 
labor  and  relieving  distress.* 

The  mistake  of  modern  writers  in  dealing  with 
this  period  too  frequently  consists  in  merely  re- 
peating the  inveterate  prejudices  of  past  centuries 
without  any  profound  research  into  a  subject  so 

■*  "  A  History  of  the  English  Church,"  Vol.  II,  p.  272. 


78  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

little  understood.  A  twentieth  century  point  of 
view  moreover  prevents  them  from  ever  realizing 
the  vast  difference  in  social,  political  and  economic 
conditions  and  needs  that  separates  those  times 
from  our  own,  and  the  equally  vast  difference  of 
mental  attitude  towards  the  most  vital  questions 
under  consideration.  They  will  therefore  no 
doubt  be  startled  to  know  that  so  important  an 
authority  upon  the  economics  of  the  Middle  Ages 
as  Damaschke  assures  us  that  a  degree  of  general 
social  welfare  and  true  popular  happiness  was 
reached  under  the  feudal  system  which  surpasses 
our  very  conception.  Even  at  its  worst  the  feudal 
system  was  a  vast  progress  over  the  best  condi- 
tions of  labor  that  had  ever  existed  in  the  pagan 
world  of  classical  antiquity.^ 

As  for  more  modern  times,  what  was  the  end 
of  all  the  vaunted  civilization  of  the  smug,  self- 
satisfied  nineteenth  century  except  boundless  dis- 
satisfaction, unhappiness  and  not  seldom  abject 
misery  such  as  the  Middle  Ages  never  knew?  A 
clarification  of  our  social  vision  is  sadly  needed, 
and  this  we  trust  our  study  of  those  same  ages  at 
their  height  of  development  will  give  to  us  in  the 
picture  of  that  Christian  democracy  of  industry 
that  was  at  length  to  be  reached  as  the  economic 
realization  of  their  Catholic  ideals. 

5  J.  E.  T.  Rogers  constantly  refers  to  medieval  labor  condi- 
tions as  relatively  preferable  to  those  of  his  day.  "  A  History 
of  Agriculture  and  Prices,"  etc. 


CHAPTER     IX 

PEACE  GILDS 

WE  have  studied  the  position  of  the  un- 
free  or  partially  freed  laborer.  Go- 
ing back  again  to  the  first  centuries  of 
the  Middle  Ages  we  can  now  in  turn  view  the  con- 
dition of  the  freemen  of  that  early  period  as  we 
behold  them  leagued  together  in  the  frith  (peace) 
gilds  of  Europe,  more  than  a  thousand  years  ago. 
In  the  laws  of  King  Ine,  about  the  year  690,  we 
first  meet  with  the  word  gegyldan.  We  find  it 
again  in  the  laws  of  King  Alfred  enacted  two 
centuries  later.  The  meaning  of  that  word  seems 
now  to  be  fairly  clear. 

The  gegyldan  were  comrades  mutually  responsi- 
ble for  each  other  before  the  law,  and  leagued  to- 
gether for  self-protection  as  well  as  for  the  preser- 
vation of  peace  and  order.  The  name  Frith 
{Frieden  in  modern  German)  or  "  peace  "  gilds, 
is  therefore  often  given  to  these  institutions. 
They  were  gilds  only  in  the  wide  sense  of  the 
word  since  they  were  not  voluntary  organizations. 
The  freemen  of  the  early  Saxon  towns  were  di- 
vided into  groups  of  ten,  known  as  tithings.  Ten 
such   groups   in  turn   formed   a   hundred.     The 

79 


8o  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

statutes  regulating  them  were  made  the  law  of  the 
land,  and  in  the  time  of  Athelstan  we  find  them 
drawn  up  by  the  ecclesiastical  and  civil  authorities. 

"  This  is  the  ordinance,"  begins  the  official  doc- 
ument, "  which  the  bishops  and  reeves  of  London 
have  ordained  and  confirmed  among  our  frith 
gilds,  both  of  thanes  and  of  churls.  ...  Be  it  re- 
solved that  we  count  every  ten  men  together,  and 
the  chief  one  to  direct  the  nine  in  each  of  those 
duties  which  we  have  all  ordained;  and  afterwards 
the  hundreds  (hyndens)  of  them  together,  and 
one  hundred-man  (hynden-man,  centurion)  who 
shall  admonish  the  ten  for  the  common  benefit."  ^ 
The  eleven  officers  were  to  hold  and  disburse  the 
money,  ^ild  or  ^eld,  from  which  it  is  argued  by 
some  that  the  gild  was  named.  We  can  readily, 
therefore,  reconcile  the  two  translations  of  gegyl- 
dan  as  gild-brethren  ^  or  pay-brethren.^ 

Although  the  question  of  labor  does  not  enter 
here,  except  very  indirectly,  the  frith  gilds  are  of 
great  interest  from  a  civic  and  economic  point  of 
view,  no  less  than  in  their  cultural  and  historic 
aspect. 

The  earliest  Saxon  gild  legislation  which  we  pos- 
sess in  the  laws  of  Ine  and  Alfred  is  concerned 
with  the  payment  of  the  wergild,  or  blood  money, 
which  was  to  be  paid  in  those  primitive  times  when 

^  Judic'ta  C'tvitatis  Lundonia,  Athelstan  V.  Thorpe,  I,  p.  230. 

2  Dr.  Stubbs. 

3  Schmid,  "  Gesetze,"  p.  589. 


PEACE   GILDS  8  I 

one  man  had  killed  another.  Such  laws  were 
common  among  all  the  Germanic  tribes.  We  find 
them  among  the  Saxons,  the  Bavarians,  the  Ala- 
manni,  the  Frisians,  the  Visigoths,  the  Salian 
Franks  and  others.  A  definite  price  was  set  upon 
every  head,  from  king  to  freedman.  Among  the 
Saxons,  it  is  thought  that  the  wergild  to  be  paid 
for  a  noble  who  had  been  killed  was  1,440  shill- 
ings; for  a  freeman,  240;  and  for  a  freedman  who 
had  once  been  in  bondage,  120.  Money  values, 
of  course,  cannot  even  remotely  be  compared  with 
those  of  the  present  day.  A  slave,  according  to 
the  London  statutes,  was  to  be  compensated  for 
at  the  maximum  rate  of  half  a  pound,  or  less,  "  ac- 
cording to  his  value." 

Since  in  many  cases  the  man  who  had  committed 
the  deed  could  not  pay  his  penalty,  the  relatives 
and  the  gildsmen  were  held  responsible  for  a  share. 
Thus,  according  to  King  Alfred's  laws,  if  the  man 
was  without  paternal  relatives,  but  had  relatives 
on  his  mother's  side,  the  latter  were  to  pay  one- 
third  of  the  blood  money;  his  gegyldan,  one-third 
and  he  himself  the  remaining  portion.  If  he  was 
without  any  relatives,  the  payment  was  to  be  made 
in  equal  shares  by  the  gegyldan  and  himself. 
Without  entering  into  the  intricacies  of  this  law, 
it  is  evident  at  once  that  the  gild  implied  a  soli- 
darity almost  as  close  as  a  family  bond.  This 
conclusion  is  important  since  it  gives  a  true  insight 
into  the  nature  of  gild  life. 


82  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

In  Studying  these  conditions,  we  realize  at  the 
same  time  the  difficulties  encountered  by  the 
Church  throughout  the  European  world  in  "  tam- 
ing and  humanizing  the  countless  petty  chieftains 
and  evolving  Christian  chivalry  out  of  violence  and 
brutality."  The  first  mention  of  the  gegyldan,  it 
should  be  noted,  is  coincident  with  the  victory  of 
Catholicity  over  paganism.  The  earliest  gilds, 
though  far  from  perfect,  were  already  in  many 
ways  a  great  power  for  good.     Kemble  says : 

If  a  crime  were  committed,  the  gyld  were  to  hold  the  crim- 
inal to  his  answer ;  to  clear  him,  if  they  could  conscientiously 
do  so,  by  making  oath  in  his  favor,  to  aid  him  in  paying  his 
fine  if  found  guilty.  If  flying  from  justice  he  admitted  his 
crime,  they  were  to  purge  themselves  on  oath  from  all  guilty 
knowledge  of  the  act,  and  all  participation  in  his  flight,  failing 
which  they  were  themselves  to  suffer  mulct  in  proportion  to  his 
offense.  On  the  other  hand  they  were  to  receive  at  least  a 
portion  of  the  compensation  for  his  death,  or  of  such  other 
sums  as  passed  from  hand  to  hand  during  the  process  of  an 
Anglo-Saxon  suit* 

The  object,  therefore,  of  these  gilds  or  tith- 
ings  was  to  maintain  the  public  peace;  to  preserve 
"  the  life,  honor  and  property  "  of  individuals;  to 
bring  the  guilty  to  justice  and  provide  defenders 
for  the  injured  and  the  innocent,  at  a  time  when 
the  power  of  the  government  was  insufficient  for 
these  purposes.  The  power  possessed  by  the 
gilds  was  legally  delegated,  and  their  retributive 
actions  did  not  therefore  correspond  to  the  mod- 

*  John  Mitchell  Kemble,  "  The  Saxons  of  England  "  I,  p.  252. 


PEACE    GILDS  83 

ern  lynch  law,  which  presumes  to  take  justice  into 
its  own  hands  without  any  legal  sanction. 

Private  warfare,  however,  had  been  considered 
an  inalienable  right  of  the  Germanic  freeman  in 
his  pagan  state.  With  his  conversation  every  at- 
tempt was  made  to  set  legal  limits  to  its  continu- 
ance until  it  could  be  entirely  abolished.  Only 
where  the  existence  of  the  family  seemed  to  re- 
quire it  did  the  laws  of  Alfred  tolerate  such  war- 
fare, or  where  the  offender  made  peaceful  settle- 
ment impossible,  in  which  case  the  injured  party 
would  have  the  support  of  the  State.  So  again 
Edmund,  towards  the  middle  of  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, deliberated  with  the  counsel  of  his  Witan: 
"  First,  how  I  might  best  promote  Christianity. 
Then  seemed  it  to  us  first  most  needful  that  we 
should  most  firmly  preserve  peace  and  harmony 
among  ourselves,  throughout  all  my  dominion. 
Both  I  and  all  of  us  hold  in  horror  the  unright- 
eous and  manifold  fightings  that  exist  among  our- 
selves." ^ 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  the  pay- 
ment of  the  wergild  necessarily  implied  that  hu- 
man life  had  been  taken.  It  included  every 
peaceful  settlement  of  feuds  by  means  of  money 
and  all  the  fines  that  might  be  exacted  for  any 
injury,  personal  or  domestic,  or  even  for  the  as- 
persion of  a  man's  good  name. 

^  Ibid.,  I,  pp.  251,  274.    Eadm.  Sec.  Leg.,  Section  i.    Thorpe, 
I,  p.  246. 


84  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

The  complete  statutes,  however,  of  the  frith 
gilds  under  Athelstan,  from  which  we  have  al- 
ready quoted,  open  for  us  a  much  wider  view. 
We  there  come  upon  institutions  of  great  eco- 
nomic, as  well  as  legal,  importance.  They  were 
not  only  the  police  departments  of  their  day,  free 
from  all  suspicion  of  graft,  but  the  insurance  com- 
panies, mutual  benefit  associations,  purgatorial  so- 
cieties, and  even  to  a  certain  degree  the  courts  of 
justice  —  all  in  one  —  for  the  happy  gildsman. 
Though  imposed  from  without,  they  already  con- 
tain much  of  the  spirit  of  the  free  gilds  which 
were  now  soon  to  arise. 

One  of  their  chief  purposes  was  the  recovery  of 
stolen  property.  Where  this  was  not  possible 
compensation  was  made  to  the  loser  from  the  gild 
funds,  or  by  a  pro  rata  tax  upon  the  brethren.  A 
limit,  however,  was  clearly  set  for  the  maximum 
amount  to  be  paid  for  the  unrecovered  article. 
The  pursuit  of  the  thief  was  undertaken  in  com- 
mon. If  caught,  summary  justice  was  executed 
upon  him.  A  reward  of  twelve  shillings,  in  fact, 
was  set  upon  the  open  killing  of  a  thief  by  any  of 
the  brethren.  The  utterly  unprotected  condition 
of  the  citizens,  which  laid  them  open  to  pillage  and 
robbery,  led  to  such  severity.  The  property  that 
could  be  stolen  consisted  mainly  in  live  stock  and 
slaves.  If  the  latter  "  stole  themselves,"  i.  e., 
ran  away,  they  met  the  fate  of  a  thief  when  caught. 
To  compensate  the  owner  each  gildsman  who  pos- 


PEACE   GILDS  85 

sessed  a  slave  contributed  id.  or  half  a  penny. 
In  particular  legislations  we  can  see  the  efforts 
made  by  the  Church  to  shield  offenders,  especially 
if  young  and  amenable  to  correction,  while  the  in- 
stitution of  slavery,  as  well  as  the  savage  right  of 
feud,  was  fast  disappearing  under  her  influence. 
She  was  doing  what  lay  in  her  power  to  protect  the 
unfortunate  and  promote  Christian  charity,  ad- 
vancing the  great  work  of  Christian  Democracy. 

The  patience  required  to  change  certain  im- 
memorial customs  and  traditions,  originally  con- 
ceived in  the  spirit  of  a  religion  that  had  wor- 
shiped in  the  name  of  Thor  and  Wodan  and  to 
substitute  in  their  place  the  practices  of  a  faith 
which  meekly  bowed  the  neck  of  the  fierce  war- 
rior beneath  the  sweet  yoke  of  Christ,  is  often  but 
little  understood  by  the  historian  and  critic. 

The  frith  gilds  in  the  ninth,  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries  were  as  far  removed  from  paganism  as 
the  dawn  from  the  darkness,  but  the  full  day  had 
not  yet  broken.  Religion,  charity  and  brother- 
hood were  already  strong  and  dominant  principles 
in  their  statutes.  And  yet  we  cannot  be  surprised 
that  something  of  a  pagan  hardness  should  still 
remain  over  from  a  time  which  was  not  as  yet  so 
far  removed.  Governments,  moreover,  while  un- 
able to  protect  the  individual,  believed  themselves 
forced  to  countenance  stringent  measures  and  regu- 
lations that  the  country  might  not  fall  a  prey  to 
marauding  bands  of  robbers. 


86  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

Referring  to  the  material  aspect  of  the  London 
ordinances,  H.  F.  Coote  writes : 

The  regulations  and  provisions  of  this  gild  command  our 
unqualified  respect.  They  are  irrefutable  evidence  of  a  high 
state  of  civilization.  We  have  in  them  a  scheme  of  mutual 
assurance,  with  all  the  appliances  of  carrying  it  out,  combined 
vrith  thorough  comprehension  of  the  true  principle  upon  which 
such  schemes  are  founded,  and  can  alone  be  supported.  For 
the  gild  not  only  satisfies  itself  that  the  claim  is  honest,  but 
repudiates  payment  of  it  whenever  the  claimant  has  shown 
himself  to  have  been  contributory  by  his  negligence  to  the 
loss  of  which  he  affects  to  complain.  And,  lastly,  the  gild,  to 
secure  the  society  against  claims  of  unlimited  and  overwhelm- 
ing amount,  establishes  a  maximum  rate  of  compensation.^ 

The  religious  element,  however,  was  not  for- 
gotten. "  And  we  have  also  ordained,"  wrote  the 
drafters  of  the  London  statutes,  "  respectmg  every 
man  who  gives  his  pledge  in  our  gildship,  that 
should  he  die,  each  gild-brother  {gegylda)  shall 
give  a  gesuf el-loaf  for  his  soul  (a  loaf  of  bread 
offered  to  the  poor  in  alms  for  the  repose  of  the 
departed  soul)  and  sing  fifty  (psalms)  or  cause 
the  same  to  be  sung  within  thirty  days."  '^  The 
offering  of  Masses  for  this  purpose  was  of  course, 
most  common,  as  we  find  in  the  statutes  of  the  true 
voluntary  gilds  which  were  now  to  come  into  ex- 
istence. It  may  be  noted  that  in  one  instance  the 
singing  of  the  Psalter  or  the  offering  of  a  Mass  is 
left  to  the  choice  of  the  gildsman. 

«  Henry  Charles  Coote,  F.  S.  A.    "  Transactions  of  the  Lon- 
don and  Middlesex  Archcological  Societj,"  IV,  p.  12. 
7  Ibid. 


PEACE   GILDS  87 

Charity,  too,  although  it  began  at  home,  did  not 
remain  there.  The  poor  and  afflicted  were  the 
objects  of  special  consideration,  and  pilgrims  were 
helped  upon  their  way  to  accomplish  their  pious 
vows  or  to  satisfy  their  devotion  by  kneeling  at  the 
tomb  of  our  Lord  or  praying  at  the  sites  of  His 
sacred  passion  and  death  in  distant  Palestine.  It 
was  evident  that  under  these  Christian  influences 
the  remnants  of  pagan  harshness  were  soon  to 
melt  away  like  the  last  drifts  of  winter's  snow  be- 
neath the  genial  sun  of  the  new  springtime  of 
Catholic  charity. 

From  the  earliest  origin  indeed  of  the  medieval 
gilds,  a  Catholic  spirit  was  already  breathing 
through  them.  Even  in  their  most  primitive  days 
it  was  felt  like  a  waft  of  Spring  through  the  misty 
forests,  awakening  the  newly  organized  institu- 
tions to  a  newness  of  freedom  and  a  fulness  of 
life  and  beauty  which  paganism  could  never  know. 
If  something  of  the  chill  and  gloom  of  earlier  tra- 
ditions doubtless  still  clung  to  them,  it  was  gradu- 
ally yielding  to  the  warmth  of  Christian  charity 
and  the  light  of  Christian  truth.  The  world  was 
slowly  being  prepared  for  its  first  concept  of  the 
full  scope  of  Christian  Democracy. 

Frith  gilds  in  fine  were  not  limited  to  the  Saxons 
in  England,  but  were  common  likewise  upon  the 
continent.  The  same  conditions  called  forth  the 
same  remedy.  In  France  they  were  organized  by 
the    bishops.     "  Each    diocese,"    writes    Unwin, 


88  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

"  became  the  center  of  a  large  association  which 
embraced  all  classes,  peasant  and  noble,  cleric  and 
lay,  town  and  country."  They  were  known  as  La 
Paix,  or  La  Commune  de  la  Paix,  a  name  identical 
in  meaning  with  the  Saxon  frith  gilds  which  we 
have  here  described. 


CHAPTER      X 

LABOR  UNDER  CHARLEMAGNE  AND 
AFTER 

THE  world  ffild  Itself,  geldonia  in  Carlo- 
vingian  Latin,  occurs  for  the  first  time  in 
the  year  779.  It  is  found  in  a  law  is- 
sued by  Charlemagne,  decreeing  that  no  one  should 
thenceforth  presume  "  to  bind  himself  by  mutual 
oaths  in  a  gild."  From  the  mistakes  made  by  the 
earliest  copyists  in  transcribing  this  term  we  may 
reasonably  conclude  that  it  was  not  yet  in  common 
use. 

In  821  the  lords  of  Flanders  were  cautioned, 
under  penalty  of  heavy  fines,  to  prevent  their  serfs 
from  forming  associations  binding  under  oath. 
Similar  injunctions  were  again  issued  in  a  capi- 
tulary of  the  year  884.  The  clergy  as  well  as 
public  officials  were  to  instruct  the  serfs  "  not  to 
enter  into  the  combination  commonly  called  a  gild 
(quam  vulgo  geldam  vacant),  against  those  who 
may  have  stolen  anything."  ^  The  serfs,  in  other 
words,  were  not  to  take  the  law  into  their  own 
hands,  but  to  leave  its  execution  to  the  proper  au- 
thorities. Such  associations  would  doubtless  have 
helped  to  protect  them  in  those  unsettled  times, 

1  Cap.  A.  884.     Pertz,  I,  553. 
89 


90  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

but  a  serious  menace  was  seen  In  them  for  the 
State. 

Modern  authors  in  general  vie  with  each  other 
in  their  denunciations  of  Charlemagne  for  his  at- 
tempted suppression  of  the  gilds,  confounding 
them  with  the  craft  gilds  of  later  years.  Centur- 
ies were  still  to  elapse  before  economic  and  social, 
as  well  as  political  conditions,  could  make  these 
organizations  possible.  Moreover,  it  was  not 
against  the  gilds,  but  against  the  oaths,  which  he 
believed  might  lead  to  conspiracies  and  national 
danger,  that  the  legislation  was  directed.  Politi- 
cal and  civic  conditions  were  in  a  ferment.  The 
centralization  of  power  was  real  only  in  so  far  as 
it  depended  upon  the  personal  influence  of  Charle- 
magne himself.  Disruption  in  fact  followed  the 
very  instant  that  the  grasp  of  his  own  strong  hand 
was  relaxed  in  death. 

But  another  reason  also  existed  for  the  suppres- 
sion of  some  of  these  early  gilds.  Their  secret 
conclaves,  it  is  believed,  were  in  some  cases  merely 
a  cloak  for  continuing  the  Idolatrous  practices 
which  had  survived  from  heathen  times.  That 
pagan  organizations,  somewhat  similar  in  purpose 
to  the  gilds  of  the  Frankish  serfs  and  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  freemen,  had  existed  among  the  ancient 
Teutons  is  sufficiently  established.  The  old  Ger- 
man warriors  met  and  mingled  their  blood  and 
drank  it  as  a  mutual  pledge  that  they  would  defend 
and    avenge    each    other.     "  Dost    thou    recall, 


LABOR    UNDER    CHARLEMAGNE   AND  AFTER         9 1 

Odin,"  says  Loki  in  the  Lokasenna,  '*  how  when 
our  pledge  began,  we  mingled  blood  together?  " 

It  is  not  surprising  therefore  that  the  Church 
should  at  times  have  been  obliged  publicly  to  for- 
bid such  organizations,  even  as  duty  compels  her 
to  do  in  our  day.  Thus  a  canon  of  the  Council 
of  Nantes  forbids  "  collectae  vel  confratriae,  quas 
consortia  vocant."  It  is  unreasonable  to  inveigh 
against  such  regulations.  Mistakes  may  undoubt- 
edly have  been  made,  and  even  personally  selfish 
motives  may  have  swayed  individual  ecclesiastics; 
but  the  Church  herself  has  from  the  first  been  the 
champion  of  all  reasonable  freedom  of  organiza- 
tion. Even  the  oath  itself,  which  at  every  period 
was  regarded  an  essential  condition  for  admission 
to  the  gilds,  was  never  in  principle  forbidden,  and 
virtually  never  opposed  by  her  in  practice  during 
the  entire  course  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

But  the  Church  was  no  passive  spectator  of  the 
progress  of  the  gilds.  Her  fostering  care  was 
one  of  the  mightiest  factors  in  their  development. 
As  George  Unwin  says  in  relation  to  the  earliest 
Prankish  gilds  : 

Apart  from  the  reference  to  the  mutual  oath,  nothing  is 
said  of  the  religious  character  of  these  associations;  but  in 
that  age  the  cooperation,  official  or  unofficial,  of  the  clergy 
was  an  almost  indispensable  element  of  any 'popular  organiza- 
tion. We  also  know  that  by  the  middle  of  the  ninth  cen- 
tury the  clergy  of  the  diocese  of  Rheims  were  allowed  to 
superintend  the  formation  of  religious  gilds  bearing  essen- 
tially   the    same    character    as    those    which,    throughout    the 


92  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

Middle   Ages,    underlay    every   form    of    social    and    economic 
organization.2 

These  religious  gilds  indeed  are  of  the  highest 
Importance  in  the  history  o(  labor,  since  from 
them  in  many  cases  the  labor  gilds  were  later  to 
arise,  directly  or  indirectly.  Such  was  especially 
the  case  where  the  establishment  of  such  unions, 
whether  of  tradesmen  or  of  journeymen,  was  re- 
garded with  suspicion,  while  the  Church  harbored 
and  fostered  them. 

In  the  time  of  Charlemagne  many  of  the  trades 
already  existed;  but  the  tradesmen  themselves 
were  largely  of  servile  condition.  They  were 
often  perfectly  organized;  but  never  by  their  own 
Initiative.  The  serfs  and  other  unfree  laborers 
—  among  whom  must  be  numbered  not  only  me- 
chanics, but  even  small  dealers  and  professional 
artists  —  were  at  times  grouped  according  to  oc- 
cupations by  the  lord  to  whose  manor  they  were 
attached.  Servants,  hunters  and  shepherds  were 
similarly  organized.  The  entire  institution  was 
known  as  the  Frohnhof  or  manor.  The  laborers 
thus  employed  were  known  as  Horige  or  serfs. 
Each  division  was  under  its  master,  who  had  the 
power  of  exercising  judgment  and  correction,  un- 
less a  misdemeanor  occurred  which  was  to  be  re- 
ferred to  a  higher  official.  The  last  court  of  ap- 
peal was  the  lord  of  the  manor  himself,  whose 
power  was  limited,  however,  by  the  law  of  the 

2  "  The  Gilds  and  Companies  of  London,"  p.  17. 


LABOR    UNDER    CHARLEMAGNE   AND  AFTER         93 

land,^  It  is  evident  that  these  organizations  could 
in  no  sense  be  spoken  of  as  gilds. 

The  unfree  craftsmen  did  not,  however,  work 
exclusively  for  their  lord.  Their  duties  were 
variously  limited,  and  the  remaining  time  was 
given  to  labor  for  their  own  profit.  They  might 
either  dwell  in  the  manor  itself  or  in  the  vicinity. 
Many  would  probably  take  up  their  home  in  the 
lord's  manor  during  the  time  devoted  to  his  serv- 
ice. Charlemagne  himself  was  liberally  supplied 
at  his  various  manors  with  skilled  craftsmen  and 
even  expert  artists :  "  workers  in  gold  and  silver, 
blacksmiths,  shoemakers,  turners,  wagon-makers, 
carpenters,  armorers,  lace-makers,  soap-boilers, 
brewers  and  bakers."  Many  interesting  details 
regarding  the  system  employed  by  him  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Capitulare  de  Villis  of  the  years  809 
and  812.^ 

In  the  Lex  Burgundionum  it  is  definitely  stated 
that  the  unfree  craftsmen  were  not  exclusively  en- 
gaged by  their  masters,  but  were  permitted  pub- 
licly to  practise  their  various  trades.^  Such,  in  the 
opinion  of  Miiller,  was  the  custom  during  the  en- 
tire period  of  serfdom.®  They  might  sell  their 
wares  or  their  labor.     In  the  "  Vita  Gebehardi,"  ^ 

*  Dr.  Otto  Gierke,  "  Das  deutsche  Genossenschaftsrecht,"  pp. 
176-178. 

•*  Pertz,  I  and  IIL 

^  "  Liber  Constitutionum." 

«  Walther  Muller,  "  Zur  Frage  des  Vrsprungs  der  Mittelalter- 
lichen  Ziinfte,"  pp.  47,  ff.  ''  Cap.  19. 


94  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

we  read  how  the  Bishop  organized  his  craftsmen 
in  the  city  of  Constance  according  to  their  differ- 
ent trades,  with  a  master  set  over  each  single  craft. 
They  were  to  spend  certain  days  at  the  Mon- 
astery of  Peterhausen,  near  the  city,  where  they 
received  their  meals  and  performed  the  neces- 
sary work.  They  would  then  return  to  their 
shops  and  their  homes  in  Constance.  This  gives 
us  an  excellent  picture  of  the  times  and  shows  how 
bishops  and  abbots,  here  as  elsewhere,  conformed 
to  the  economic  systems  of  their  period,  while  all 
concede  that  under  the  abbot's  jurisdiction  were 
ever  to  be  found  the  most  ideal  conditions  of  the 
day. 

The  system  here  described  was  indeed  far  re- 
moved from  the  supreme  ideals  of  Christian 
democracy  applied  to  industry.  Yet  it  was  an  im- 
measurable progress  over  the  position  of  the 
laborer  in  the  classic  days  of  Rome  and  Greece, 
while  it  afforded  the  humble  toiler  a  surer  sub- 
sistence and  a  more  quiet  and  contented  life  than 
he  was  to  enjoy  at  a  much  later  period  under  mod- 
ern capitalism.  Pauperism  and  starvation  were 
alike  unknown.  The  lowliest  worker  and  his  fam- 
ily were  always  provided  for  and  the  supplies  of 
the  monasteries  were  everywhere  at  his  command, 
should  he  stand  in  need  of  them.  So,  too,  the 
beneficed  clergyman  was  bound  by  canon  law 
to  spend  on  the  Church  or  on  the  poor  all  that 


LABOR    UNDER    CHARLEMAGNE    AND  AFTER         95 

remained  to  him  after  his  own  proper  sustentation. 
It  was  not  the  fault  of  the  Church  if  he  abused  his 
opportunities.  Even  in  Wolsey's  favor,  who 
lived  at  a  far  later  period  and  represented  the  ex- 
treme of  ecclesiastical  ambition,  Joseph  Rickaby, 
S.  J.,  writes:  "  It  may  be  allowed  that  he  spent  his 
wealth  nobly.  And  so  did  other  great  ecclesiastics 
of  the  age,  which  the  plunderers  of  the  next  gen- 
eration did  not.  What  is  known  at  Oxford  as 
'  the  House  '  is  forever  sacred  to  the  memory  of 
the  Cardinal  of  Yorke." 

Not  all  German  laborers  were  serfs  in  the 
early  centuries  here  described.  The  number  of 
free  craftsmen  was  constantly  increasing.  There 
was  also  a  considerable  class  of  free  farmers  who 
owned  the  soil  they  tilled,  as  well  as  a  number  of 
free  mark  and  village  communities.  Yet  ordi- 
narily even  these  stood  under  the  protection  of 
some  great  lord.  It  must,  in  fact,  be  remembered 
here  that  the  entire  civilization  of  that  period  was 
built  upon  the  one  idea  of  service.  The  lord  him- 
self was  only  less  dependent  than  his  serfs.  It  was 
the  duty  and  the  glory  of  each  man,  whether  free 
or  bond,  high  or  low,  to  be  faithful  to  the  master 
who  was  over  him.  "  I  serve,"  could  be  the 
motto  of  the  proudest  lord. 

A  greater  freedom  gradually  prevailed  among 
the  serfs.  Their  service  was  reduced  to  a  more 
limited  number  of  days.     It  even  passed  from  the 


g6  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

individual  to  the  trade  group,  which  could  assign 
definite  members  to  perform  in  turn  the  custom- 
ary duties,  thus  always  leaving  a  number  free  to 
follow  their  own  occupations.  A  tax  was  finally 
paid  in  place  of  personal  service,  and  so  serfdom 
itself  passed  out  of  existence. 

During  the  course  of  these  developments  the 
groups  of  workmen  had  formed  their  own  organiz- 
ations under  the  care  of  the  Church.  Every  Ger- 
man gild,  as  Gierke  remarks,  was  religious,  social 
and  moral  in  its  purpose,  besides  following  its  own 
specific  aims.  Even  before  their  emancipation 
the  serfs  had  obtained  distinct  rights  which  their 
lords  were  bound  to  respect.  With  their  full  free- 
dom achieved  they  naturally  betook  themselves  in 
ever  increasing  numbers  into  the  cities,  which  thus 
received  a  great  labor  population.  Free  gilds 
sprang  into  existence  everywhere,  each  with  its 
own  chaplain,  its  own  altar  or  chapel,  and  its  ob- 
lations of  candles,  its  offerings  for  Masses,  and 
its  benefactions  to  the  poor. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  concluded  that  we  must 
therefore  seek  the  origin  of  the  gilds  in  the  unfree 
labor  groups,  organized  by  the  Prankish  lords 
upon  their  manors. .  This  was  but  one  of  many 
factors  which  all  combined  to  further  the  same 
Christian  ideal.  The  essence  of  the  gild  was 
brotherhood,  religion,  mutual  helpfulness  and 
social  fellowship  among  equals.  Everywhere  the 
same    forces    were    at    work.     Everywhere    the 


LABOR    UNDER    CHARLEMAGNE   AND   AFTER         97 

Church  stood  by,  protecting,  directing,  leading  up- 
ward to  a  larger  freedom  and  a  more  perfect  char- 
ity. 

Outside  the  Church  violence  and  barbarity,  sword  and  con- 
quest, the  untamed  powers  of  nature  reigned  unchecked,  both 
before  the  time  of  Pepin  and  Charlemagne,  and  after  them 
under  their  more  feeble  successors,  and  indeed  long  after  the 
complete  extinction  of  their  race.  In  spite  of  the  contempt  for 
learning  and  culture,  there  existed  still  a  deep  reverence  for 
religion  and  its  ministers;  in  spite  of  strong  passions,  faith  was 
living.  Monasteries  were  held  in  high  honor  as  abodes  of 
purer  life,  and  persons  high  in  rank  took  pleasure  in  visiting 
them,  and  frequently  chose  them  as  places  of  retreat  for  the 
remainder  of  their  lives.  Discipline  and  sound  principles  could 
come  from  the  Church  alone;  enlightened  legislation  could  be 
her  work  alone;  and  under  her  influence  alone  could  the  con- 
ditions of  society  be  improved.  To  her  was  due  the  mitigation 
and  repression  of  slavery,  the  first  organized  care  of  the  poor, 
the  institution  of  the  Truce  of  God,  the  establishment  of  places 
of  education,  and  every  true  form  of  progress. 

Princes  and  people  were  eager  to  confide  the  weightiest 
interests  to  the  clerg>'  and  to  increase  their  external  means  of 
power  and  influence ;  for  their  learning  and  virtue  they  merited 
trust,  and  by  their  character  and  authority  they  were  the  most 
sure  support  of  public  order.  The  Church  on  her  side  did  her 
utmost  to  obtain  safeguards  against  the  many  attacks  and  acts 
of  aggression  of  princes  and  nobles,  who  sometimes  from  desire 
of  vengeance,  oftener  from  mere  covetousness,  imprisoned 
bishops  and  priests,  robbed  them,  misused  them  and  thrust  others 
into  their  places.* 

It  was  this  constant  interference  of  the  State 
with  the  Church,  beginning  with  the  reign  of  Con- 

*  Dr.  Joseph  Hergenrother,  "  Catholic  Church  and  Christian 
State,"  I,  pp.  256,  257.  See:  Ratzinger,  "  Geschichte  der  Kirch- 
lichen  Armenpflege,"  pp.  141,  ff. 


98  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

stantlne,  the  first  imperial  champion  of  Christi- 
anity, and  continuing  down  to  our  time,  that  has 
ever  hampered  her  power  for  good,  thrusting  un- 
worthy prelates  in  high  places  or  preventing  the 
great  unselfish  works  of  zeal  and  piety  undertaken 
by  others.  Yet  in  spite  of  every  difficulty  from 
within  or  from  without  she  has  steadily  carried 
down  the  ages  the  torch  of  Christian  truth  that 
lights  the  way  to  all  true  liberty. 

And  here  a  little  digression  may  be  of  interest 
to  complete  the  picture  of  this  early  civilization. 
No  later  than  the  year  858  we  find  mention  made 
of  gilds  of  priests  as  well  as  of  the  laity  in  the  ca- 
pitularies of  Archbishop  Hincmar  of  Rheims.® 
No  restriction  of  any  kind  is  placed  upon  them,  ex- 
cept that  they  must  not  transgress  the  bounds  of 
"  authority,  usefulness  and  right  reason."  Here 
therefore  we  have  the  attitude  of  the  Church 
clearly  defined  at  the  very  beginning  of  gild  his- 
tory. When  the  limits  thus  described  are  fla- 
grantly transgressed,  it  Is  not  only  her  right,  but 
her  duty  to  interfere.  The  salvation  of  souls  is 
then  imperiled.  The  social  institution  thus  cen- 
sured has  become  a  menace  to  society  and  religion. 

Since  frequent  mention  is  made  of  these  gilds  of 
priests  that  sprang  up  at  the  beginning  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  and  much  misunderstanding  exists  upon 
this  point,  a  word  of  explanation  may  well  be  of- 
fered.    They  were  known  by  the  name  of  Gilds  of 

^  Labbei  Concilia,  ed.  Coleti,  t.  x.,  cap.  i6,  p.  4. 


LABOR    UNDER    CHARLEMAGNE    AND  AFTER         99 

the  Kalends,  because  they  met  on  the  first  day  of 
the  Roman  month,  the  calendae.  Their  purpose 
was  the  discussion  of  pastoral  interests.  Thus 
the  clergy  of  certain  sections  would  meet  for  divine 
service,  common  deliberations  and  the  usual  feast 
which  was  one  of  the  essentials  of  every  medieval 
gild.  Special  objects,  such  as  the  maintenance 
of  schools,  the  preservation  of  documents  and 
archives,  were  likewise  kept  in  view.  The  mem- 
bers are  occasionally  reminded  in  their  statutes 
that  their  gilds  exist  "  not  merely  that  they  may 
derive  from  them  present  advantages  and  tem- 
poral gains,  but  rather  that  they  may  obtain 
heavenly  and  eternal  benefits."  They  are  admon- 
ished to  take  their  meal  becomingly  and  with  the 
fear  of  God.  Pious  reading  and  singing  of  hymns 
are  suggested.  A  limited  number  of  laymen  were 
admitted  into  these  gilds  at  a  later  period;  but 
their  wives,  in  spite  of  frequent  requests  on  the 
part  of  their  husbands  were  excluded,  until  in 
1422,  after  many  centuries,  slight  concessioi^«"J 
were  made  upon  this  point.  They  were  such,  how- 
ever, as  hardly  to  modify  the  strictness  of  the  or- 
iginal regulations.  The  main  feature  was  that  the 
wives  of  the  lay  members  took  their  turns  in  offer- 
ing hospitality  and  services  to  the  gild. 

That  in  the  very  earliest  and  semi-barbarous 
times  abuses  occasionally  occurred  at  the  meetings 
of  these  gilds  is  evident  in  particular  from  the 
capitulary  of  Archbishop  Hincmar  (852).     It  is 


lOO  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

entirely  unwarranted,  however,  to  draw  the  con- 
clusion, as  has  commonly  been  done  in  a  very  un- 
historical  way,  that  such  happenings  were  the  rule 
and  not  the  exception.  During  the  many  centuries 
of  the  existence  of  these  gilds  only  a  very  few  ref- 
erences to  excesses  can  be  found,  and  these  oc- 
curred at  the  very  beginning  of  gild  history. 
They  simply  serve  to  illustrate  in  a  striking  man- 
ner the  watchfulness  of  the  Church  over  her  chil- 
dren and  her  care  to  correct  without  delay  what- 
ever is  evil.  It  is  from  prompt  ecclesiastical  repri- 
mands that  we  have  our  knowledge  of  these  mat- 
ters. The  capitularies  of  Archbishop  Hincmar 
(852)  and  of  Bishop  Walter  of  Orleans  (858) 
are  the  sources  of  our  information.  The  very 
documents  in  question,  with  their  sound  moral  les- 
sons, afford  the  best  evidence  of  the  high  ideals 
maintained  by  the  Church  at  every  epoch  of  his- 
tory. The  facts  we  have  alluded  to  prove  nothing 
more  than  that  the  vices  and  passions  of  the  pagan 
orgies  of  earlier  times  were  still  a  danger  to  the 
recently  converted  Catholics,  and  that  instances  oc- 
curred in  which  even  the  clergy  were  not  free  from 
blame.  With  the  more  complete  infusion  of  the 
Catholic  spirit  these  abuses  disappeared.  The  in- 
cidents therefore  are  only  another  splendid  wit- 
ness to  the  power  for  good  which  the  Church  has 
ever  exercised  in  the  world. 

"  The  power  of  religious  sentiment,"  Emerson 
says,  in  describing  that  Christianity  which  "  like  a 


LABOR    UNDER    CHARLEMAGNE    AND  AFTER       lOI 

chemistry  of  fire  "  drew  a  firm  line  between  bar- 
barism and  culture  — "  The  power  of  religious 
sentiment  put  an  end  to  human  sacrifices,  checked 
appetite,  inspired  the  Crusades,  inspired  resistance 
to  tyrants,  inspired  self-respect,  set  bounds  to  serf- 
dom and  slavery,  founded  liberty,  created  the  re- 
ligious architecture :  Yorke,  Newstead,  Westmin- 
ster, etc. —  works  to  which  the  key  is  lost  with  the 
sentiment  which  created  them."  With  a  reunion 
of  the  world  in  that  one  same  Faith,  as  living 
to-day  as  in  the  day  of  the  Apostles  or  of  the 
builders  of  Oxford  and  of  Chartres  cathedral,  can 
that  golden  key  be  found  again. 


CHAPTER     XI 

ORIGIN  OF  MEDIEVAL  GILDS 

THERE  is  great  divergence  of  opinion 
about  the  origin  of  the  free  medieval 
gilds  which  are  next  to  engage  our  at- 
tention and  wherein  we  shall  find  exemplified  the 
highest  conceptions  of  the  dignity  of  labor  and 
the  truest  realization  hitherto  attained  of  the  dem- 
ocratic control  of  industry.  Though  apparently 
it  matters  little  to  the  social  student  or  reformer 
whether  they  were  derived  from  ancient  Rome  or 
Greece,  or  sprang  up  from  the  soil  itself  of  the 
respective  European  countries,  under  the  influence 
of  the  Church,  the  question  in  reality  is  of  vital 
significance.  Whatever  their  earliest  origin,  it 
was  the  Church,  as  we  shall  see,  which  impressed 
upon  them,  and  upon  the  civilization  in  the  midst 
of  which  they  developed,  those  marvelous  Chris- 
tian characteristics  which  essentially  distinguished 
them  from  every  similar  form  of  organization  his- 
torians may  find  in  Egypt,  India  or  China,  in 
Greece  or  Rome,  and  even  among  the  barbarous 
tribes  from  which  many  of  the  great  nations  of 
modern  Europe  have  sprung. 

It  is  true  that  long  before  the  medieval  gilds 
came  into  being,  the  Roman  officia  opificum,  or 


ORIGIN   OF   MEDIEVAL   GILDS  I03 

trade  unions,  had  existed  not  merely  in  Rome  it- 
self, but  also  in  the  ancient  cities  of  Gaul,  Britain 
and  other  provinces  under  Roman  dominion. 
This  civilization,  however,  was  soon  to  be  swept 
away,  and  about  such  unions  the  history  of  the 
centuries  that  immediately  followed  is  silent.  Lit- 
tle can  now  be  learned  of  economic  conditions  dur- 
ing these  submerged  epochs  of  history  except  that 
slavery  was  again  made  the  practice  of  the  bar- 
barian conqueror,  and  the  slave  was  deprived,  as 
in  the  former  pagan  days,  of  every  human  right. 
Yet  the  many  analogies  and  even  possible  points 
of  contact  existing  between  the  ancient  and  the 
medieval  gilds  have  naturally  given  rise  to  a  theory 
which  would  see  in  the  medieval  trade  unions  the 
lineal  descendants  of  the  ancient  labor  organiza- 
tions. In  the  same  manner  the  merchant  gilds  of 
the  Middle  Ages  are  thought  to  be  derived  from 
the  trading  organizations  of  the  Romans  and  the 
Syrians. 

Especially  interesting  is  the  fact  that  in  the 
East  classical  traditions  continued  unbroken  at 
Constantinople,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  Ro- 
man gilds  may  there  at  least  have  survived  until 
the  very  fall  of  the  city,  towards  the  end  of  the 
Middle  Ages.  Certain  it  is  that  such  gilds  are 
found  both  under  the  Byzantine  Emperors  and 
in  the  days  of  Moslem  rule.  Mohammed  him- 
self is  said  to  have  been  a  member  of  a  merchant 
gild.     The  tradition   which   makes   of  him   the 


I04  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

founder  of  the  Esnafs,  as  the  Turkish  gilds  are 
called,  is  accounted  for  by  the  same  process  which 
ascribed  to  Numa  or  to  Servius  TuUius  the  insti- 
tution of  the  Roman  craft  gilds,  or  which  attri- 
buted to  iEsop  the  fables  that  centuries  before  had 
been  familiar  to  the  old  Egyptians.  All  that  is 
needed  is  a  historic  nucleus. 

The  Esnafs,  as  the  gilds  of  Turkey  and  the  va- 
rious Mussulman  tribes  are  called,  were  not  im- 
probably derived  from  such  early  institutions,  and 
popular  traditions  made  bold  to  trace  them  back 
to  the  days  before  the  flood.  Like  the  classical 
Christian  gilds  they  acknowledged  the  need  of  re- 
ligion, but  showed  a  true  Mohammedan  singular- 
ity, and  at  times  perversity,  in  the  choice  of  pa- 
trons. Thus  to  Adam  were  dedicated  the  gilds  of 
bakers  and  tailors,  to  Noah  the  shipwrights  and 
carpenters.  Cain  was  the  patron  of  the  grave- 
diggers,  Abel  of  the  herdsmen  and  Nimrod  of  the 
smiths,  while  Mother  Eve  was  patroness  of  the 
gild  of  washerwomen.^  Enoch  was  regarded  as 
the  first  weaver  and  Seth  as  the  first  button-maker 
and  wool-dealer,  the  inventor  of  the  shirt.^ 

Westward  the  course  of  Empire  takes  its  way. 
Along  the  same  path,  by  a  finely  elaborated  and 
seemingly  plausible  theory,  certain  writers  have 
attempted   to   trace   the   progress   of   the   gilds. 

1  Garnett,  "  Turkish  Life  in  Town   and  Country." 

2  Kosta  Nikoloff,  "  Das  Handiverk  und  Zunftivesen  in  Bul- 
garien,"  etc. 


ORIGIN    OF   MEDIEVAL   GILDS  IO5 

What  in  fact  could  seem  more  simple  than  to  map 
out  this  uninterrupted  course  of  gild  life  through 
more  than  twenty  centuries?  Beginning  with  the 
days  of  the  Roman  King  Numa,  almost  seven  hun- 
dred years  before  the  Christian  era,  we  would 
thus  trace  it  down  to  Augustus;  from  Augustus  to 
Constantine;  from  the  first  Eastern  Emperor  to 
the  last  of  the  Byzantine  monarchs.  Finally  from 
Constantinople  we  should  see  it  spreading  through- 
out the  Orient,  thence  passing  over  into  Lombardy, 
from  Lombardy  into  Southern  France,  and  from 
France  into  Germany  and  England! 

While  this  may  forcibly  appeal  to  the  theorist, 
there  is  no  historic  evidence  to  make  the  gilds  of 
the  Middle  Ages  essentially  dependent  upon  those 
of  other  civilizations.  Influences  from  Roman 
and  Byzantine  sources  may  undoubtedly  have  been 
brought  to  bear  upon  them,  whether  directly  or 
indirectly.  Yet  such  influences  were  not  sufficient 
to  account  for  a  system  which  seemed  almost  to 
partake  of  the  universality  of  the  Catholic  Church 
itself,  and  which  differed  vastly  in  its  entire  spirit 
from  all  other  forms  of  gild  life  which  had  pre- 
ceded it. 

While  the  Roman  trade-unions  during  the  last 
centuries  of  the  declining  Empire  were  purely  ser- 
vile organizations,  and  the  Eastern  esnafs  and  the 
trade  castes  of  India  remained  stagnant,  the  gilds 
which  arose  under  the  influence  of  the  Catholic 
Church  were  a  dynamic  force.     Nowhere  perhaps 


I06  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

was  that  freedom  and  spirit  of  brotherhood,  which 
the  Church  has  come  to  bring  to  mankind,  better 
illustrated  than  in  these  gilds  at  the  period  of  their 
most  Ideal  development.  They  were  the  natural 
flowering  of  her  teachings  by  which  alone  labor 
was  truly  honored  and  sanctified.  Under  her  in- 
spiration nobles  and  captains,  princes  and  rulers 
laid  aside  their  robes  of  state  and  shining  armor 
to  don  the  poor  patched  habit  of  the  monk.  To 
the  great  Religious  Order  of  the  Benedictines,  in 
particular,  as  we  have  seen,  the  civilization  of 
barbarous  nations  was  due.  They  drained  the 
marshes  and  cultivated  the  arid  land;  they  cleared 
the  forests  which  were  still  the  lurking  places  of 
wild  beasts  and  more  savage  men;  they  tutored  the 
fierce  minds  of  the  barbarian  hordes,  and  with 
solemn  chant  and  ,holy  word  raised  up  men's 
hearts  to  God.  Beneath  their  labors  the  waste 
wilderness  became  fertile  with  the  benediction  of 
golden  harvests  and  the  desert  bloomed  Into  an 
Eden  of  beauty.  Soon  hamlet  and  town  arose 
about  the  monastery  wall,  and  God  was  glorified 
throughout  the  land.  Amid  such  influences  many 
of  the  gilds  of  the  Middle  Ages  took  their  origin. 

So  Intimate  Indeed  was  the  relation  between 
the  Church  and  organized  labor,  and  so  inter- 
fused were  the  religious  and  economic  purposes 
of  the  labor  gilds  that  It  Is  almost  impossible  to 
classify  them.  "  The  religious  element,"  writes 
Gross,  "  a  potent  factor  In  the  history  of  gilds 


ORIGIN    OF   MEDIEVAL   GILDS  IO7 

from  their  birth  to  their  final  extinction,  is  an  al- 
most insurmountable  obstacle  to  their  logical  clas- 
sification; for,  as  Wilda  rightly  observes,  every 
gild  comprehended  within  itself  a  religious  one."  ^ 

While  the  relation  of  the  gilds  with  the  Church 
is  unquestionable,  both  as  regards  their  origin  and 
their  development,  an  outline  must  at  least  be 
given  here  of  the  theory  which  would  seek  to 
trace  them  back  to  the  old  pagan  sacrificial  feasts 
of  the  nations  among  whom  the  early  missionaries 
labored. 

The  old  Teutonic  root  of  the  word  gild  has  two 
distinct  meanings.  It  signified  "  to  pay  "  and  also 
"  to  sacrifice."  The  word,  therefore,  in  its  first 
meaning,  might  readily  have  been  derived  from 
the  contributions,  or  "  payments,"  which  have  al- 
ways been  an  essential  part  of  the  gild  statutes  in 
every  age.  Geld  in  German  still  retains  this  root 
meaning,  and  is  the  exact  equivalent  of  our  mod- 
ern English  word  "  money  "  for  the  Anglo-Saxon 
gild. 

Writers,  however,  who  insist  mainly  upon  the 
sacrificial  character  of  the  first  gilds  naturally  ac- 
cept only  the  derivation  which  confirms  their  own 
theory.  According  to  Brentano,  one  of  the  fore- 
most champions  of  this  view,  gild  meant  originally 
the  sacrificial  meal  made  up  of  common  contribu- 
tions; then  a  social  banquet  in  general;  and  lastly 
a  society. 

3  Charles  Gross,  "The  Gild  Merchant,"  I,  p.  176. 


I08  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

Christianity  —  to  sum  up  this  theory  in  brief  — 
had  not  come  to  banish  the  cheer  of  life,  but  to 
hallow  it.  The  old  feasts  were  therefore  still 
retained  as  paganism  gradually  disappeared.  But 
Christ  was  worshiped  and  His  saints  were  hon- 
ored in  place  of  the  idolatrous  homage  which  had 
once  prevailed.  The  banquets  formerly  held  in 
connection  with  superstitious  sacrifices  were  now 
opened  with  Christian  prayers.  The  virtues  of 
the  Gospel  expelled  the  vices  of  the  pagan  orgies. 
The  Church  in  fine  retained,  and  elevated  to  a 
higher  sphere,  whatever  elements  of  brotherhood 
and  mutual  helpfulness  had  already  existed  under 
the  old  worship  of  the  false  gods. 

Such  an  argument  may  appear  plausible.  Yet 
here  likewise  there  is  no  evidence  which  forces  us 
to  accept  it.  The  banquets  which  were  to  become 
so  striking  a  feature  of  the  Christian  gilds  had 
already  existed  in  the  gilds  of  Rome  and  Greece. 
With  a  different  spirit  they  reappeared  in  the  love 
feasts  of  apostolic  days.  They  were  the  natural 
expression  of  man's  social  nature,  and  like  all  other 
indifferent  actions  could  be  supernaturalized  by 
religious  motives.  While  instituted  for  manifold 
and  specifically  various  purposes,  the  medieval 
gilds  were  invariably  social  and  religious.  Hence 
they  naturally  delighted  in  conviviality,  without 
forgetting  the  public  as  well  as  private  duties  of 
worship. 


ORIGIN   OF   MEDIEVAL   GILDS  IO9 

Wilda,*  one  of  the  earliest  authorities  upon  this 
subject  and  a  foremost  defender  of  the  dual  origin 
of  the  gilds,  attributes  them  both  to  the  heathen 
banquets  and  to  the  later  influence  of  the  Church. 
Gross,  who  takes  issue  with  him  upon  the  first 
part  of  this  theory,  fully  admits  the  importance 
of  the  second.  "  However  erroneous,"  he  writes, 
"  Wilda's  theories  may  be  in  detail,  he  is  doubt- 
less right  in  ascribing  to  Christianity  a  prominent 
part  in  the  inception  of  the  gilds."  The  Chris- 
tianity of  those  days  was  nothing  else  than  the 
Catholic  Church,  the  same  in  her  teaching  as  we 
know  her  to-day. 

After  what  has  already  been  said  we  can  dis- 
pense ourselves  from  entering  into  the  evolution- 
ary theories  which  deduce  the  gilds  from  the  fam- 
ily. While  admitting  freely  the  possibility  of 
many  and  various  modifying  influences,  such  as 
we  have  here  described,  it  is  suflicient  to  recur  to 
the  needs  of  human  nature  and  the  principles  of 
Christianity  as  the  chief  sources  from  which  sprang 
the  medieval  gilds. 

*W.  E.  Wilda,  "Das  Gildemuesen  im  Mhtelalter." 


CHAPTER     XII 

MERCHANT  GILDS 

ANEW  epoch  in  the  history  of  labor  opens 
with  the  merchant  gilds.  Seen  in  their 
best  aspect,  they  are  the  first  approach 
towards  an  adequate  expression  of  industrial  de- 
mocracy that  the  world  had  known.  To  appre- 
ciate the  progress  implied  in  these  early  "  town 
gilds  "  we  need  but  cast  a  single  glance  backward 
into  the  past. 

Far  in  the  distance  lies  the  arid  waste  of  an- 
cient paganism.  In  the  famous  cities  of  classical 
antiquity  the  oppression  of  labor  reached  its  height 
amid  the  culmination  of  art  and  wealth,  while  the 
fair  countrysides,  that  once  had  been  held  as  the 
possession  of  sturdy  freeman,  were  filled  with 
gruesome  prison  dens  whence  the  branded  slaves 
went  forth  to  toil  beneath  the  lash  and  till  for 
heartless  Roman  masters  the  earth  that  God  had 
made  for  all  alike.  In  such  a  world  was  sown 
the  great  doctrine  of  human  brotherhood.  Jud- 
aism had  never  been  able  to  practise  it  perfectly. 
Christianity  realized  it  for  the  first  time  within  its 
own  early  community.  But  bitter  and  ceaseless 
to  the  end  was  the  Church's  struggle  with  Ro- 
man vice   and  heartlessness   and   greed,   though 

no 


MERCHANT   GILDS  III 

great  and  many  were  the  saints  she  reared.  Then 
came  the  hurricane  of  the  barbarian  invasion  lay- 
ing waste  all  the  earth.  One  institution  alone  re- 
mained. It  was  that  same  Church  of  Christ 
which  had  sought  to  Christianize  the  Roman  as  it 
now  labored  to  convert  and  civilize  the  rude 
hordes  that  fell  upon  him  as  the  scourge  of  God. 

Again  amid  the  new  paganism  of  the  barbarian 
conquerors  sprang  up  the  beauty  of  the  Gospel 
teachings  of  human  brotherhood  and  the  Father- 
hood of  an  all-loving  God.  The  fierce  and  bloody 
Wotan  disappeared  before  the  fair  Christ,  born 
of  the  lowly  virgin  and  reared  in  the  humble  car- 
penter's shop,  Himself  the  Carpenter  of  Nazareth. 
No  wonder  that  with  the  growing  power  of  the 
Church  labor  too  should  rise  into  dignity,  should 
develop  its  new-found  freedom  and  should  finally 
attain  to  the  perfection  of  industrial  democracy  in 
the  days  when  the  great  Catholic  gilds  were  at 
length  to  reach  the  summit  of  their  usefulness. 

With  the  ffilda  mercatoria  —  as  the  first  of  the 
new  institutions  we  are  now  to  study  was  called  in 
the  Latin  documents  of  the  day  —  the  economic 
chapter  of  the  medieval  labor  associations  prop- 
erly begins.  Variously  known  as  the  gild  mer- 
chant, merchant  gild  or  town  gild,  this  organiza- 
tion is  peculiarly  interesting  to  us  from  many 
points  of  view.  It  appeals  alike  to  the  historian, 
the  lawyer,  the  social  worker,  the  inquirer  into 
the  origin  of  corporations,  the  student  of  munici- 


112  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

pal  government  or  popular  civic  activities,  and  to 
all  who  are  following  the  momentous  develop- 
ment of  economic  organizations  in  our  day. 
Previous  societies  had  been  exclusively  civic,  social 
and  religious  in  their  scope.  The  new  institution 
embraced  all  these  purposes,  although  it  was  pre- 
dominantly commercial  in  its  nature. 

No  trace  of  any  merchant  gild  can  be  found 
previous  to  the  records  of  the  Norman  Conquest 
in  England.  It  was  in  this  country  that  it  re- 
ceived its  most  complete  development  and  exer- 
cised a  greater  influence  than  in  Germany,  France 
or  any  other  European  land.  A  reason  for  this 
fact  may  not  improbably  have  been  the  compara- 
tively late  expansion  of  industry  in  England,  which 
made  commercial  intercourse  with  the  continent 
peculiarly  necessary.  Even  in  the  Anglo-Saxon 
days  the  merchant  who  thrice  crossed  the  ocean 
was  raised  to  the  dignity  of  a  thane. 

Whatever  cause  we  may  assign,  it  is  certain 
that  with  the  Norman  Conquest  a  new  era  of  com- 
mercial and  industrial  expansion  opened  up  for 
England.  Not  only  was  foreign  trade  stim- 
ulated by  the  close  relation  of  the  Norman  mer- 
chant with  the  continent,  but  a  new  impulse  was 
given  to  domestic  trade  and  industry.  Probably 
the  first  clear  reference  to  a  merchant  gild  is  found 
in  a  charter  granted  to  the  burgesses  of  Burford 
by  Robert  Fitz-Hamon  (1087-1107). 

The  name  given  to  the  particular  form  of  asso- 


MERCHANT   GILDS  II3 

ciatlon  which  we  are  here  considering  is  apt  to 
prove  misleading  to  the  modern  reader.  The 
term  "  merchant  gild  "  only  vaguely  implies  the 
meaning  it  would  convey  to-day.  It  was  in  reality 
a  labor  gild.  Each  craftsman,  at  this  period,  was 
likewise  a  merchant.  He  personally  manufac- 
tured his  wares  and  personally  sold  them  in  the 
market,  at  the  fair,  or  in  his  own  shop  and  home. 
He  not  only  directly  purchased  the  raw  material 
of  his  trade,  but  at  times  even  bartered  with  it. 
Thus  the  brewers  of  Hamburg  are  said  to  have 
been  the  principal  corn  merchants  of  their  city. 
Similar  instances  might  readily  be  given  in  illus- 
tration from  English  history. 

All  the  burgesses,  or  citizens,  of  these  primitive 
communities  could  therefore  be  members  of  the 
merchant  gild  of  their  respective  town  or  borough. 
Since,  however,  the  possession  of  a  burgage  —  the 
ownership  of  a  town  lot,  apparently  with  or  with- 
out a  tenement,  according  to  different  regulations 
—  was  in  some  instances  at  least  required  for  the 
right  of  citizenship  and  of  the  ballot,  there  would 
necessarily  be  many  who  could  not  fulfil  this  con- 
dition. Others  again  were  not  strictly  resident 
inhabitants,  while  lastly  there  was  a  large  unfree 
population,  known  from  this  time  on  as  villeins. 
In  many  boroughs  members  of  all  these  grades 
could  enter  the  gild.  Special  clauses  in  favor  of 
villeins  were  even  to  be  found  in  not  a  few  in- 
stances.    The  exclusiveness  of  later  gilds  became 


114  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

more  absolute  as  the  town  population  grew,  and 
the  gradual  emancipation  of  the  unfree  classes 
filled  the  cities  with  men  who  were  often  almost 
on  a  footing  with  the  free  burghers,  although  still 
in  a  nominal  state  of  villeinage. 

The  merchant  gilds  were  a  protection  against 
the  feudal  lord,  and  the  bondman  who  had  fled 
from  the  land  was  to  be  recognized  as  a  freeman 
after  he  had  lived  in  the  town  a  year  and  a  day. 
This  certainly  applied  where  he  held  land,  paying 
"  scot  and  lot."  But  even  before  the  expiration 
of  that  time  he  could  be  a  member  of  the  gild. 
It  is  evident  therefore  how  the  spirit  of  industrial 
democracy  was  gradually  developed  by  these  free 
institutions. 

In  illustration  we  may  quote  the  answer  made 
by  the  mayor  and  community  of  Bedford  to  the 
crown  attorney  who  by  royal  authority  had  asked 
to  know  what  inhabitants  were  admitted  into  their 
Merchant  Gild.  "  Both  burgesses  (i.e.,  citizens) 
of  the  town,"  they  replied,  "  and  any  others  dwell- 
ing in  the  same,  from  the  time  that  they  take  the 
oath  to  preserve  the  liberties  of  the  town  and  the 
king's  peace  and  to  maintain  all  other  privileges 
touching  the  aforesaid  town  and  gild,  are  ad- 
mitted into  the  gild,  so  that  they  can  then  sell  all 
kinds  of  merchandise  by  retail,  and  everywhere 
enjoy  the  aforesaid  immunities  and  liberties,  just 
as  the   burgesses   themselves."  ^     It   is   evident, 

1  Gross,  "  The  Gild  Merchant,"  I,  p.  38. 


MERCHA.NT   GILDS  II5 

therefore,  that  citizenship  and  gildship  were  not 
synonymous,  as  has  often  been  assumed. 

The  specific  object  of  the  merchant  gild  is 
likewise  clearly  defined  in  this  quotation.  It  is 
briefly  expressed  in  the  words,  "  so  that  they  can 
then  sell  all  kinds  of  merchandise  by  retail." 
While  a  certain  liberty  was  allowed  to  foreign 
merchants  in  disposing  of  their  goods  by  whole- 
sale in  so  far  as  this  could  not  harm  domestic 
trade,  no  one  except  a  gildsman  might  in  general 
deal  in  retail  merchandise  without  being  subject  to 
tolls  from  which  the  members  of  the  gild  were 
free.  The  sale  of  certain  products  was  moreover 
strictly  a  gild  monopoly.  It  is  probable  however 
that  the  necessaries  of  life  were  not  ordinarily 
subject  to  such  restrictions. 

"  No  one  shall  buy  anything  in  the  town  of 
Southampton,  to  sell  again  in  the  same  town," 
reads  a  local  gild  statute,  "  unless  he  be  of  the 
Gild  Merchant,  or  of  the  franchise;  and  if  any  one 
does  it  and  is  found  guilty,  all  that  he  has  thus 
bought  shall  be  forfeited  to  the  King."  ^  Even 
in  making  purchases  the  gild  merchant  of  this 
town  was  to  take  precedence  over  all  others  who 
might  wish  to  buy : 

And  no  simple  inhabitant  nor  stranger  shall  bargain  for  nor 
buy  any  kind  of  merchandise  coming  to  the  town  before  bur- 
gesses of  the  Gild  Merchant,  so  long  as  a  gildsman  is  present 
and  wishes  to  bargain  for  or  buy  it;   and  if  any  one  does  it 

^Ibid.,  p.  46. 


Il6  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

and  is  found  guilty,  that  which  he  buys  shall  be  forfeited  to  the 
King.3 

Thus  we  read  that  the  abbot  of  Buckfastleigh, 
to  enjoy  the  gild  privileges  of  purchase,  entered 
into  the  following  agreement  with  the  citizens  of 
Totnes  about  the  year  1235:  "That  the  said 
burgesses  receive  the  said  abbot  and  monks  into 
the  gild  merchant,  i.  e.,  that  they  be  allowed  to 
make  all  purchases  like  other  burgesses,  excepting 
all  sales  in  the  name  of  trade."  For  this  privi- 
lege a  yearly  tollage  was  paid  by  the  abbot. 

To  judge  fairly  of  these  regulations  we  must 
bear  in  mind  that,  at  least  in  their  best  period,  the 
English  merchant  gilds  were  generally  open  to  ev- 
ery merchant  and  craftsman  in  the  town.  Even 
foreign  merchants  not  belonging  to  the  gild  might 
sell  their  wares  at  the  great  fairs  and  on  market 
days,  when  the  main  purchases  of  the  year  were 
made.  Merchants  of  neighboring  towns  might 
moreover  receive  the  liberty  of  the  gild,  and  an 
interchange  of  privileges  took  place.  In  some 
charters  express  mention  is  made  of  freedom  from 
toll  throughout  the  realm.  It  is  even  believed  that 
this  was  a  general  privilege  of  the  merchant  gilds. 

In  every  case  strict  provision  was  made  in  the 
royal  charter,  or  by  the  town  authorities,  to  pro- 
tect the  gildsmen  from  the  unlicensed  competition 
of  non-members  or  foreigners.  The  latter  title 
was  applied  to  all  who  were  not  townsmen.     The 

3  Southampton  Gild,  A.  D.  1327. 


MERCHANT   GILDS  II7 

isolation  of  the  individual  boroughs,  the  dangers 
often  encountered  in  passing  from  one  to  the 
other,  made  the  separation  between  town  and 
town  perhaps  as  great  as  that  which  now  exists 
between  country  and  country.  Every  stranger, 
though  coming  from  the  nearest  city,  was  a  "  for- 
eigner." The  gildsmen  therefore  could  not  per- 
mit him  to  carry  away  at  pleasure  the  wealth  of 
the  little  community.  Many  exceptions,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  were  made  in  this  medieval  pro- 
tective system. 

The  retail  selling  of  merchandise  by  non-gilds- 
men  was  forbidden,  not  only  within  the  borough, 
but  likewise  within  the  immediate  neighborhood, 
so  that  there  might  be  no  possibility  of  circumvent- 
ing the  law.  Thus  the  charter  given  by  Henry  II 
to  Oxford  lays  stress  upon  the  privilege  of  the 
merchant  gild,  "  so  that  no  one  who  is  not  of  the 
gild  shall  presume  to  deal  in  merchandise  either 
within  the  city  or  in  the  suburbs."  *  Frequently 
only  certain  classes  of  articles  are  specified  as  sub- 
ject to  such  restrictions. 

Although  the  merchant  gilds  were  therefore,  in 
a  wide  sense,  trading  monopolies,  they  cannot 
even  remotely  be  compared  with  the  monopolies 
of  our  day,  or  with  any  that  have  sprung  up  since 
the  Reformation.  They  are  essentially  different. 
This  is  at  once  evident  from  the  fact  that  so  far 
from  seeking  to  bring  about  a  concentration  of 

*Stubb8,  "Select  Charters,"  167. 


Il8  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

trade  in  the  hands  of  a  few  their  object  was  to 
embrace  all  who  could  be  considered  merchants 
in  any  sense  of  the  word,  including  the  craftsmen 
of  the  town  who  formed  the  overwhelmingly  great 
majority  of  the  original  membership. 

If,  nevertheless,  there  always  remained  a  num- 
ber who  were  not  members  of  the  gild,  and  con- 
sequently were  excluded  from  its  public  privileges, 
the  reason  is  not  difficult  to  see.  It  was  upon  the 
gildsmen,  even  though  not  citizens,  that  a  large 
portion  of  the  burden  of  taxation  fell.  They 
therefore  demanded  likewise  the  advantage  of 
special  privileges  not  to  be  accorded  to  strangers 
and  others  who  had  no  share  in  paying  the  munici- 
pal expenses  and  answering  the  royal  obligations 
placed  upon  the  town.  Such  a  demand  was  justi- 
fied, provided  it  was  not  carried  to  excess.  The 
first  duty  of  the  gildsmen  was  to  pay  scot  and  lot. 
This  implied  that  they  were  to  be  assessed  in  pro- 
portionate shares  whenever  money  was  required 
not  only  for  public  improvements,  but  likewise  to 
meet  the  exactions  of  the  king.  In  the  latter  case 
particularly,  there  was  question  of  forfeiting  the 
dearly  bought  and  jealously  guarded  franchises  of 
the  town  itself,  should  they  fail  in  their  duties. 
The  merchant  gild  therefore  was  the  last  re- 
source and  the  great  strength  of  the  municipalities 
with  which  it  was  identified.  The  town  devel- 
oped and  prospered  along  with  it.  Not  only  did 
the  gild  pay  the  imposed  taxes,  but  it  often  under- 


MERCHA.NT    GILDS  II9 

took  considerable  works  for  the  common  good. 
The  municipal  welfare  and  the  unsullied  reputa- 
tion of  its  borough  was  the  main  concern  of  the 
merchant  gild. 

That  there  were  likewise  serious  disadvantages 
to  be  dreaded  from  excessive  protection,  and  from 
abuses  of  power,  leading  to  selfishness,  need  not 
be  insisted  upon.  Like  all  purely  human  institu- 
tions, the  merchant  gilds  had  their  defective  side 
due  to  mere  misjudgment,  to  faulty  social  cus- 
toms and  traditions  not  yet  cast  aside,  or  to  other 
human  frailties.  Even  in  the  most  ideal  earthly 
state  we  shall  never  be  able  to  ignore  the  fact  of 
the  original  fall.  Civic  injustice  and  domestic 
grievances  will,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  always 
crop  up  anew  owing  to  human  selfishness.  Re- 
ligion alone  can  successfully  attack  this  evil  at  its 
root. 

Another  vital  difference  between  the  merchant 
gild  and  modern  monopoly  lies  in  the  fact  that  the 
right  of  the  consumer  was  constantly  kept  in  sight. 
The  object  of  the  gild  was  to  set  a  fair  price 
which  should  be  neither  exorbitant  for  the  pur- 
chaser nor  unjust  for  the  tradesman.  All  traf- 
ficking above  or  below  this  just  standard  was  cer- 
tain to  bring  severe  penalties  upon  the  offenders. 
Heavy  fines  moreover  were  Imposed  for  all  dis- 
honesty in  weight,  measure  or  quantity.  The  nu- 
merous records  which  remain  show  that  these  laws 
were  duly  enforced.     Here  indeed  is  one  of  the 


120  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

first  demands  made  upon  the  producer  in  any 
system  of  industrial  democracy  worthy  of  the 
name.  Both  profits  and  wages  must  be  kept 
within  a  reasonable  limit  that  will  effectively  ward 
off  from  the  consumer  the  menace  of  a  high  cost 
of  living. 

Lastly,  all  monopoly,  such  as  the  term  implies 
at  present,  was  not  only  strictly  forbidden,  but 
stringent  regulations  were  drawn  up  to  make  it 
impossible.  No  individual  or  group  of  individ- 
uals could  monopolize  any  product.  Attempts  to 
buy  up  goods,  not  indeed  to  control  the  market  — 
an  offense  so  heinous  that  it  was  utterly  unimag- 
inable to  the  mind  of  the  medieval  gildsman  — 
but  to  conduct  a  larger  sale  than  was  possible  to 
others,  was  likely  to  meet  with  instant  and  abso- 
lute confiscation  of  the  goods  purchased  for  this 
purpose.  The  genius  of  the  individual  was  to 
manifest  itself,  not  by  accumulating  a  vast  fortune 
and  by  employing  the  greatest  number  of  men,  but 
by  producing  the  most  perfect  article  for  the  mar- 
ket. Each  gildsman  was  to  earn  an  honest  in- 
come. No  one  was  to  monopoHze  or  even  par- 
tially control  any  industry. 

While  therefore  under  the  later  system  of  op- 
pressive individualism  the  merchant  gilds  were 
naturally  condemned  as  destructive  of  free  compe- 
tition, and  we  may  readily  concede  that  their  pro- 
tective measures  may  at  times  seem  irksome  and  ex- 
cessive, they  nevertheless  prevented  the  far  greater 


MERCHA.NT   GILDS  121 

evils  that  were  to  follow  under  capitalism.  These 
truths  are  being  admitted  more  freely  every  day. 
Even  Mr.  Henry  C.  Vedder,  Professor  of  Church 
History  in  Crozier  Theological  Seminary,  con- 
fesses no  less  in  a  volume  written  the  very  year  of 
the  outbreak  of  the  world  war.     He  says : 

The  despised  Middle  Ages  were  in  many  respects,  marked  by 
a  social  justice  superior  to  our  own.  Society  then  tried  to  pre- 
vent unfair  competition,  to  give  every  man  a  chance  in  his  own 
rank.  Rising  capitalism  was  from  the  beginning  impatient  of 
all  such  restraints,  and  insisted  that  they  should  be  removed, 
so  that  competition  might  be  made  free  and  every  man  find  his 
level.  It  proved  strong  enough  to  carry  its  point;  restraints 
were  removed ;  competition  was  without  limit.  What  followed  ? 
We  have  but  to  look  about  us  and  see.* 

The  three  great  commercial  vices  against  which 
the  merchant  gild  statutes  are  directed  were  then 
known  as  "  forestalling "  or  buying  articles  be- 
fore they  could  be  offered  in  the  open  market  on 
equal  terms  to  all  gildsmen;  "  engrossing,"  or 
making  large-scale  purchases  in  order  to  corner 
any  product;  and  lastly  "  regrating,"  or  buying 
goods  in  order  to  retail  them  above  the  market 
price.  The  main  objection  which  can  be  urged 
against  the  merchant  gilds  is  the  discrimination 
against  the  non-gildsman,  the  reason  for  which  we 
have  already  explained.  The  civic  and  national 
responsibilities  and  burdens  as  well  as  the  com- 
mercial privileges  were  equally  the  share  of  the 

5  "  The  Gospel  of  Jesus  and  the  Problems  of  Democracy,"  p. 
72. 


122  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

gildsman,  who  was  ordinarily  a  laborer,  practising 
his  trade  and  selling  his  ware  upon  the  market. 
The  non-gildsmen,  in  the  beginning,  were  mainly, 
as  would  appear,  the  half-free  population  of  the 
towns  whose  condition  the  Rev.  J.  Malet  Lambert, 
a  Protestant  divine,  holds:  "Was  in  many  re- 
spects as  prosperous,  compared  with  the  rest  of 
the  population,  as  that  of  the  artisan  class  of  the 
present  day."  ®  We  are  dealing  here  with  a  stage 
of  social  development  which  was  the  historic 
status  of  the  time,  and  which,  under  the  influence 
of  the  Church,  was  constantly  developing  into  a 
more  perfect  form  of  industrial  democracy. 

A  word  must  here  be  said  of  the  gild  officials. 
According  to  the  various  constitutions  each  organ- 
ization was  usually  presided  over  by  an  alderman, 
steward  or  master,  assisted  by  two  or  four  war- 
dens or  echevins.  Sometimes  two  officials  were  at 
the  head  of  the  gild.  Other  special  officers  were 
appointed  for  particular  functions,  such  as  provost, 
sergeant  and  bailiffs.  In  later  times  there  existed 
a  council  of  twelve  or  twenty-four  members  who 
were  most  influential  in  the  control  of  the  organ- 
ization. The  meetings  were  known  as  "  morning- 
talks,"  and  often  were  simply  called  "  gilds." 
Social  conviviality  was  of  course  indispensable  for 
the  public  gatherings  of  the  gildsmen. 

Religion,  charity  and  good  fellowship  were  all 
carefully  provided  for  within  the  merchant  gild. 

«  "  Two  Thousand  Years  of  Gild  Life,"  p.  88. 


MERCHA.NT   GILDS  123 

Regulations  regarding  the  appointment  of  a  chap- 
lain, the  offering  of  candles  for  altar  and  shrine, 
the  celebration  of  Masses  for  the  intentions  of  the 
gild,  the  prayers  for  departed  souls  and  similar 
ordinances  were  carefully  drawn  up  and  every  gild 
was  dedicated  to  a  patron  Saint.  Sick  members 
were  to  be  visited,  those  who  had  fallen  into  pov- 
erty were  to  be  relieved,  and  daughters  dowered 
for  the  wedded  life  or  for  the  convent.  Banquets 
played  an  important  part  and  often  were  held  on 
the  occasion  of  business  meetings.  Even  the  sick 
gildsmen  who  could  not  attend  were  remembered, 
and  special  portions  were  set  aside  and  sent  to 
them.  So  too,  according  to  statute  ten  of  the 
Southampton  merchant  gild: 

If  a  gildsman  was  in  prison  in  any  place  in  England,  in  time 
of  peace,  the  alderman,  with  the  seneschal  and  one  of  the 
echevJns,  should  go  at  the  cost  of  the  gild  to  procure  his  de- 
liverance. If  any  gildsman  strike  another  with  his  fist  and  be 
thereof  attained,  he  should  lose  his  gildship,  but  might  regain  the 
same  for  los.  and  a  new  oath.  A  stranger  (with  gild  privi- 
leges) striking  a  gildsman,  to  lose  his  privileges  of  the  gild  and 
go  to  prison  for  a  day  and  night;  a  stranger  not  of  the  gild 
so  offending,  to  be  imprisoned  (since  he  had  no  gild  privileges 
to  lose)  two  days  and  nights.  A  gildsman  reviling  or  aspersing 
another  gildsman  to  be  fined  2s.,  or  in  default  lose  his  gildship.^ 

Where  there  is  question  of  delivering  or  de- 
fending a  gildsman  his  innocence  is  presumed,  since 
gild  regulations  do  not  shield  the  guilty,  nor  is  im- 
punity given  to  the  gildsmen  against  non-members, 

7  Cornelius  Walford,  "Gilds,"  p.  n6. 


124  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

unless  a  gild  should  be  in  its  decline,  religiously 
and  socially. 

What  at  first  glance  must  strike  the  reader  is 
the  extensive  civic  power  delegated  to  the  mer- 
chant gilds.  So  great  was  their  influence  at  times 
that  the  impression  has  been  created  that  not  in- 
frequently the  entire  control  of  the  municipal  gov- 
ernment rested  with  the  town  gild.  Whatever 
may  be  said  of  various  continental  gilds  it  is  certain 
that  the  English  merchant  gild  was  dependent,  as 
such  organizations  sh-ould  be,  upon  the  civil  au- 
thorities and  had  its  vast  powers  duly  delegated 
from  them  or  even  directly  from  the  King  himself. 
The  early  city  charters  usually  embodied  the  priv- 
ilege of  establishing  such  a  gild,  a  privilege  eag- 
erly coveted  by  them,  since  not  only  the  prosperity 
of  the  city  but  even  the  development  of  its  consti- 
tution was  greatly  determined  by  gild  influence. 
The  very  establishment  of  a  merchant  gild  was  of 
such  significance  that  legal  writers  have  commonly 
mistaken  it  to  have  been  equivalent  to  municipal 
incorporation.  Such  therefore  was  the  status  of 
this  important  institution  during  its  most  flourish- 
ing period,  in  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries. 


CHAPTER     XIII 

A  SCOTCH  MERCHANT  GILD 

IN  the  name  of  the  Lord  God,  and  of  the  indi- 
visible Trinity,  and  of  the  Blessed  Virgin 
Mary,  and  of  all  the  Saints,  these  are  the 
statutes  of  the  Burghers'  Gild,  Such  is  the  brief 
but  solemn  introduction  to  the  code  of  ordinances 
drawn  up  for  their  merchant  gild  by  the  citizens  of 
Berwick-upon-Tweed.  Their  regulations  will  ad- 
mirably serve  us  as  an  illustration  of  the  varied 
interests  of  these  ancient  town  gilds. 

The  earliest  documentary  reference  to  the 
Scotch  gildry  dates  back  to  the  reign  of  David  I 
(1124— 1153).  From  that  period  onward  the 
gild  idea  continued  to  develop.  It  took  its  most 
definite  form  in  the  burgh  of  Berwick,  which  was  a 
Scotch  town  until  the  fourteenth  century.  Pre- 
vious to  the  year  1283  several  gilds  had  coexisted 
there  until  the  gildsmen  conceived  the  plan  of 
uniting  them  into  one  corporate  organization. 
*'  So  that,"  reads  the  gild  preamble,  "  where 
many  bodies  are  found  side  by  side  in  one  place, 
they  may  become  one  and  have  one  will,  and  in 
the  dealings  of  one  towards  another  have  a  strong 
and  hearty  love."  The  new  association  thus 
formed  was  a  merchant  gild. 

125 


126  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

The  ordinances,  we  are  told,  were  drawn  up  by 
the  burghers  in  the  course  of  two  days'  delibera- 
tions in  the  year  1283,  and  three  days'  delibera- 
tions in  the  year  following.  They  had  probably 
been  drafted  previously  by  individuals  or  com- 
mittees, who  doubtlessly  took  into  consideration 
many  earlier  gild  regulations.  The  body  of 
statutes  thus  approved  became  a  model  for  sub- 
sequent Scotch  merchant  gilds  in  other  towns. 
They  were  in  fact  of  such  importance  that  they 
were  admitted  into  the  early  collections  of  the 
burghal  laws,  and  may  be  found  in  this  connec- 
tion in  the  work  of  Cosmo  Innes,  "  Ancient  Laws 
and  Customs  of  the  Burghs  of  Scotland."  ^  In 
our  study  of  this  interesting  subject,  we  shall  use 
the  translation  given  in  his  documentary  work  on 
"  English  Gilds  "  by  Toulmin  Smith. ^ 

"  All  separate  gilds,"  the  first  statute  ordains, 
"  heretofore  existing  in  the  borough,  shall  be 
brought  to  an  end.  The  goods  rightfully  belong- 
ing to  them  shall  be  handed  over  to  this  gild.  No 
other  gild  shall  be  allowed  in  the  borough.  All 
shall  be  as  members  having  one  head,  one  in 
counsel,  one  body,  strong  and  friendly."  We 
have  here  in  this  ideal  a  reflection  of  the  one  su- 
preme reality  in  the  minds  of  the  gildsmen,  the 
unity  of  head  and  members  in  the  Catholic 
Church.     The  economic  object  was  to  eliminate 

1 1,  pp.  64-88. 

2  See  also  Thorpe,  "  Diplomatarium  Angl.,"  pp.  605-617. 


A   SCOTCH    MERCHANT   GILD  1 27 

destructive  competition  among  the  various  gilds, 
whose  members  evidently  agreed  to  unite  their  in- 
terests and  combine  their  treasuries.  Yet  there 
was  no  question  of  a  monopoly  in  the  hands  of  a 
few  wealthy  merchants. 

In  the  ordinances  which  follow  it  is  often  easy 
to  perceive  the  influence  of  Catholicity  in  the  spirit 
of  charity  and  brotherhood  displayed,  in  the  con- 
sideration taken  of  the  common  good  of  the  com- 
munity, and  in  the  generous  concern  for  the  spirit- 
ual welfare  of  the  members.  It  would  be  unjust 
on  the  other  hand  to  hold  the  Church  accountable 
for  such  imperfections  and  faults  as  may  exist  in 
this  or  any  other  gild  system.  They  are  due  to 
the  shortcomings  of  human  nature  and  the  miscon- 
ceptions or  selfishness  of  individuals,  against 
which  her  voice  is  constantly  raised. 

Continuing  our  reading  of  the  statutes,  we  find 
that  gild  brethren  making  a  will  are  obliged  to 
bequeath  a  portion  of  their  possessions  to  the  gild, 
thus  providing  for  the  common  good  of  the  city 
and  of  their  fellow  members.  Women  likewise 
were  admitted  into  the  gild,  as  we  may  judge  from 
the  eighth  statute,  which  places  the  entrance  fee 
at  not  less  than  forty  shillings,  but  exempts  from 
this  payment  "  the  sons  and  daughters  of  gilds- 
men."  If  ever  the  entrance  fees  of  gilds  became 
prohibitive  for  the  general  public  they  had  lost 
their  democratic  character. 

The  observance  of  the  Christian  law  of  charity 


128  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

is  duly  provided  for,  first  in  the  mutual  respect  the 
brethren  are  to  show  each  other.  Foul  words 
spoken  to  a  gild  brother  "  going  to,  at,  or  coming 
back  from  the  gild  meeting  "  are  punishable  by  a 
monetary  fine.  Poverty  and  human  infirmities  are 
carefully  relieved.  "  Whoever  shall  fall  into  old 
age  or  poverty,  or  into  hopeless  sickness,  and  has 
no  means  of  his  own,  shall  have  such  help  as  the 
aldermen,  dean  and  brethren  of  the  gild  think 
right,  and  such  as  the  means  of  the  gild  enable  to 
be  given."  So  too,  whoever  dies  without  leaving 
means  enough  to  pay  for  becoming  burial  rites 
"  shall  be  buried  at  the  cost  of  the  gild."  He 
was  thus  receiving  the  honors  of  the  gild  and  not 
a  pauper  funeral.  What  was  of  even  greater  im- 
portance, his  family  was  not  forgotten.  "  If  any 
brother  die,  leaving  a  daughter  true  and  worthy 
and  of  good  repute,  but  undowered,  the  gild  shall 
find  her  a  dower,  either  in  marriage,  or  in  going 
into  a  religious  house." 

Charity,  however,  was  to  be  tempered  by  jus- 
tice. Thus  if  a  brother  was  charged  with  serious 
wrong-doing  he  was  to  be  helped  by  three  of  the 
gildsmen,  and  even  the  charges  of  the  litigation 
were  for  a  time  to  be  borne  by  the  gild.  But  "  if 
the  brother  has  been  rightly  charged,"  continues 
the  twelfth  statute,  "  he  shall  be  dealt  with  as  the 
aldermen  and  brethren  think  well." 

The  gild  likewise  took  the  place  of  a  modern 
board  of  health.     Thus  it  kept  up  "  a  proper  place 


A    SCOTCH    MERCHANT   GILD  1 29 

for  lepers  "  outside  of  the  town,  and  saw  to  it 
that  fitting  alms  were  bestowed  upon  them.  But, 
if  a  leper  wilfully  forced  his  way  into  the  borough, 
thus  endangering  the  city,  he  met  with  a  some- 
what primitive  punishment,  but  no  bodily  violence 
was  done  to  him.  Another  important  sanitary 
measure,  which  modern  municipalities  might  profit- 
ably imitate,  was  to  prevent  all  unsightly  and  pol- 
luting heaps  of  rubbish  of  whatever  kind  from 
being  piled  along  the  fair  banks  of  the  Tweed. 
Marks  were  set  within  which  this  gild  law  was 
strictly  enforced  under  penalty  of  a  fine.  An- 
other statute  intended  for  the  common  welfare 
of  the  citizens  was  to  oblige  each  burgher  whose 
fortune  was  at  least  forty  pounds  to  keep  a  horse 
worth  twenty  shillings.  If  it  died  he  was  to  pro- 
cure another  within  forty  days,  or  pay  a  fine  of 
eight  shillings  sterling.  Judging  from  the  statutes 
of  a  similar  English  gild  it  would  appear  that  the 
purpose  may  have  been  to  use  the  horses  for  draw- 
ing water  in  case  of  fire,  and  probably  likewise  for 
other  civic  emergencies  and  the  defense  of  the 
town. 

In  imposing  its  obligations,  the  gild,  as  is  evi- 
dent, did  not  confine  itself  to  its  own  members. 
Its  charter  enabled  it  to  enforce  its  statutes 
throughout  the  entire  burghal  community.  Thus 
it  could  ordain,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  that  "  No 
burgess  shall  get  an  outsider  to  plead  for  him 
against  a  neighbor,  under  penalty  of  a  cask  of 


130  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

wine."  The  purely  economic  regulations  of  the 
gild  show  best  how  far-reaching  its  power  was. 

Unemployment  was  to  be  carefully  avoided. 
So,  to  keep  the  town  millers  in  work,  the  nine- 
teenth statute  ordains :  "  No  one  shall  grind 
wheat  or  other  grain  in  hand-mills  unless  through 
urgent  need.  The  miller  must  have  his  share, — 
the  thirteenth  part  for  grain  and  the  twenty-fourth 
part  for  malt."  In  the  same  manner  the  butcher 
is  not  to  deal  in  wool  or  hides,  "  unless  he  would 
abjure  his  ax  and  not  lay  hands  upon  beasts."  He 
is  to  carry  on  his  own  trade  and  not  interfere  with 
the  trade  of  another  man.  The  price,  however, 
of  the  meat  is  fixed  for  the  different  seasons. 
"  Mutton  shall  not  be  sold  from  Easter  to  Whit- 
suntide at  dearer  than  sixteen  pence  the  carcass, 
from  Whitsuntide  to  the  feast  of  St.  James  at 
dearer  than  twelve  pence,  thence  to  Michaelmas 
at  dearer  than  ten  pence,  thence  to  Easter  at 
dearer  than  eight  pence.  Whoever  breaks  this 
assize  shall  pay  a  fine  of  eight  shillings."  In  the 
same  way  the  price  of  ale  was  graded,  and  the 
ale-wives  were  to  be  registered. 

Very  little  is  said  expressly  of  gild  monopoly. 
Statute  twenty  is  an  exception :  "  No  one,  not 
being  a  brother  of  the  gild,  shall  buy  wool,  hides 
or  skins  to  sell  again,  or  shall  cut  cloths,  save 
stranger-merchants  in  course  of  trade." 

Most  important,  however,  are  the  regulations 
drawn  up  in  order  to  prevent  any  individual  from 


A    SCOTCH    MERCHANT   GILD  I3I 

acquiring  excessive  wealth,   or   from   controlling 
even  the  smallest  section  of  the  market. 

Any  brother  of  the  gild  advancing  money  to  a  stranger-nner- 
chant,  and  sharing  profits  thereon,  shall  be  fined  forty  shillings 
the  first,  the  second  and  the  third  time.  If  it  be  done  a  fourth 
time  he  shall  be  put  out  of  the  gild.  And  in  the  same  way  shall 
any  brother  be  punished  who  takes  money  from  a  stranger-mer- 
chant for  such  kind  of  trade. 

Married  women  could  not  buy  wool,  since  the 
husband  would  thus  be  able  to  carry  a  double  stock. 
For  the  same  reason  it  was  ordained  that  no  citi- 
zen could  have  more  than  one  buyer  of  wool  and 
hides.  The  fine  for  thus  attempting  to  create  a 
little  private  corner  was  very  severe.  "  Whoso- 
ever unreasonably  ingrosses  such  goods  out  of  the 
market  shall  forfeit  them  to  the  gild,  and  pay  a  fine 
of  eight  shillings." 

No  one  was  to  be  able  to  buy  up  more  than  a 
limited  amount  of  raw  material  to  carry  on  his 
trade.  In  this  way  no  one  could  deprive  others  of 
their  opportunities.  "No  woman  shall  buy  (at 
one  time)  more  than  a  chaldron  of  oats  for  mak- 
ing beer  to  sell."  So  again,  "  No  one  shall  have 
more  than  two  pair  of  mill-stones."  Live  and  let 
live,  was  the  rule.  If  more  labor  was  required  in 
such  a  method  of  production  there  was  likewise 
far  more  joy  in  the  performance  of  the  work. 
Methods  of  production,  we  must  remember,  were 
far  different  from  those  employed  to-day. 

Particularly    interesting    are    the    regulations 


132  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

which  made  the  sharing  of  large  purchases  an 
obligation  in  this  as  in  other  early  gilds.  "  Who- 
ever buys  a  lot  of  herrings  shall  share  them,  at 
cost  price,  with  the  neighbors  present  at  the  buy- 
ing. Any  one  not  present  and  wanting  some  shall 
pay  to  the  buyer  twelve  pence  profit."  To  pre- 
vent such  sharing  from  becoming  excessive  an- 
other statute  ordains  that,  "  No  brother  of  the 
gild  ought  to  go  shares  with  another  in  less  than 
a  half  quarter  of  skins,  half  a  dicker  of  hides,  and 
two  stones  of  wool." 

Of  greatest  importance,  however,  are  the  pro- 
visions made  for  the  common  good  of  all  the  citi- 
zens. Thus  forestalling  the  market  is  guarded 
against  in  every  way.  The  goods  brought  by 
trading  vessels,  and  all  "  sea-borne  articles  of 
food  "  in  particular,  are  to  be  sold  only  at  a  cer- 
tain place  or  under  certain  conditions,  to  give  all 
an  equal  opportunity  of  making  a  fair  purchase, 
and  prevent  large  purchases  by  individuals.  So 
likewise  in  regard  to  all  goods  brought  into  the 
city,  the  consumer  is  to  have  the  first  choice,  and 
only  at  a  given  signal  can  the  middleman  buy  the 
remaining  articles.  *'  No  huckster  shall  buy  fish, 
hay,  oats,  cheese,  butter,  or  any  things  sent  to  the 
borough  for  sale,  before  the  stroke  of  the  bell  in 
the  bell-tower  of  Berefrid.  If  any  one  does  this, 
the  goods  shall  be  seized,  and  shall  be  given  to 
the  poor."     To  prevent,  however,  the  possibility 


A    SCOTCH    MERCHANT   GILD  I33 

of  any  one  buying  up  the  goods  on  the  farm  before 
they  are  brought  into  the  town,  or  while  still  on 
their  way  to  the  town,  in  order  to  sell  them  at  a 
profit  and  raise  the  price  for  the  consumer,  the 
prudent  rule  is  made :  "  Goods  shall  not  be 
bought  up  before  they  reach  the  market.  Goods 
so  bought  up  shall  be  forfeited  to  the  gild." 

These  last  ordinances  in  particular  we  would 
recommend  to  all  sociological  students  for  their 
most  careful  consideration.  There  is  a  world  of 
economic  wisdom  contained  in  them.  After  al- 
most a  thousand  years  we  are  again  making  our 
own  blundering  attempts  at  what  the  old  gilds- 
men  had  solved  so  satisfactorily.  We  need  above 
all  things  to  devise  methods  —  suited  to  our  times 
and  conditions  —  of  cheaply  conveying  the  farm 
products  and  other  articles  directly  into  the  city 
and  to  the  market,  so  as  to  give  the  producer  the 
full  value  of  his  labor  and  the  purchaser  the  full 
value  of  his  money.  Protected  by  such  provisions 
men  will  more  willingly  return  to  the  farm,  and 
the  problem  of  the  high  cost  of  living  will  find  its 
solution  —  a  solution  which  can  be  rendered  fu- 
tile only  by  the  excesses  in  which  modern  society 
indulges.  A  key  to  the  solution  is  the  system  of 
cooperation. 

Attention  is  here  called  to  the  special  chapter 
on  the  middleman  in  the  author's  volume,  "The 
World  Problem,"  in  which  the  system  of  the  mer-^ 


134  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

chant  gilds  is  contrasted  witli  the  modern  waste- 
ful methods.^  There  is  no  question  of  simply  re- 
storing the  ancient  gilds  and  blindly  copying  their 
methods,  but  of  adapting  to  our  own  economic 
needs  the  excellent  principles,  more  or  less  wisely 
applied  in  the  various  medieval  gilds,  accordingly 
as  the  spirit  of  the  Church  was  able  to  exert  its 
influence.     As  Mr.  E.  T.  Raymond  says: 

No  sensible  person  will  hold  that  the  days  of  the  gilds  and 
the  monasteries  were  the  days  of  a  terrestrial  paradise.  Nobody 
but  a  fool  would  want  to  go  back  to  the  precise  ways  of  those 
times,  any  more  than  a  grown  person  would  care  to  put  on  a 
child's  jersey  and  knickerbockers.  The  point  about  the  Middle 
Ages  is  that  they  did  represent  vigorous  childhood.  .  .  .  They 
were  not  perfect,  but  they  had  nobility,  and  held  the  germ  of 
still  nobler  things.^ 

It  is  with  the  aid  of  the  principles  suggested 
to  us  by  the  medieval  gilds  and  in  the  light  of 
their  experiences  that  the  modern  social  order 
must  be  reconstructed  if  it  is  ever  to  be  safely  and 
sanely  established  for  the  procuring  of  the  com- 
mon good. 

'  Husslein,  "  The  World  Problem,"  pp.  65-74.  See  also  chap- 
ters on  cooperation:  xviii,  xix,  and  xx.  The  question  of  cooper- 
ation is  still  more  fully  developed  in  the  concluding  chapters  of 
the  present  volume. 

*  Everyman. 


CHAPTER     XIV 

ECONOMICS,  RELIGION  AND  CHARITY 

WHATEVER  defects  and  faults  may  be 
ascribed  to  the  merchant  gild  system, 
it  ever  sacredly  maintained  the  great 
truth,  that  religion  concerns  the  whole  man,  and 
that  it  may  not  be  disregarded  by  him  in  his  eco- 
nomic, social  and  civic  activities.  Religion  is  far 
more  than  "  a  private  matter,"  as  the  old  gildsmen 
well  realized.  It  determines  the  principles  that 
actuate  men  in  their  commercial  and  industrial  re- 
lations. With  religion  removed,  there  can  be  no 
authority  to  make  them  seek  truth,  justice  and 
charity  in  all  their  dealings  with  their  fellow-men. 
Merchant  gilds  were  less  noted  than  trade  gilds 
for  ordinances  of  a  religious  character.  Exam- 
ples chosen  from  them  will,  therefore,  be  all  the 
more  convincing.  They  will,  likewise,  serve  to 
illustrate  the  relation  between  religion  and  social 
works.  The  large  body  of  craftsmen  and  mer- 
chants who  constituted  these  organizations  seem, 
in  particular,  to  have  had  a  very  special  devotion 
to  the  Mystery  of  the  Holy  Trinity.  To  this,  in 
fact,  many  of  the  merchant  gilds  were  dedicated. 
We  shall  confine  ourselves  in  the  present  chapter 

135 


136  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

to  two  such  associations,  one  at  Lynn,  dedicated 
to  this  great  Mystery;  the  other  at  Coventry,  with 
the  Assumption  of  Our  Lady  for  its  patronal 
feast. 

The  organization  at  Lynn  dated  back  to  a  pe- 
riod prior  to  the  reign  of  King  John;  but  it  was 
this  monarch  who  granted  it  by  letters  patent  the 
privilege  of  a  recognized  merchant  gild.  Its  al- 
derman was  second  only  to  the  mayor  in  civic 
importance,  and  no  great  municipal  work  was  ever 
undertaken  to  which  it  did  not  liberally  contribute 
out  of  its  own  private  funds.  The  spacious  gild- 
hall  which  it  erected  in  the  center  of  the  market 
place  gave  distinction  to  the  town.  Particularly 
intimate  was  the  cooperation  between  its  officials 
and  the  Bishop.^ 

If  now  we  consider  the  organization  on  its 
spiritual  side,  we  find  it  no  less  magnificently  pro- 
vided for.  The  two  sources  of  information  in 
our  possession  are  the  statutes  and  other  ordi- 
nances of  the  gild,  and  an  inventory  made  at  the 
demand  of  King  Richard  II.  According  to  the 
latter,  the  gild,  out  of  the  income  of  its  lands, 
goods,  chattels  and  bequests,  actually  supported 
thirteen  chaplains.  Six  of  these  officiated  in  the 
church  of  St.  Margaret,  four  in  the  chapel  of  St. 
Nicholas  and  three  in  the  chapel  of  St.  James. 
They  were  to  celebrate  Mass  daily,  and  to  pray 

1  Richards,    "  History   of    Lynn,"    pp.   458-466 ;    Gross,    "  The 
Gild  Merchant,"  II,«pp.  1 51-170.     Harrod. 


ECONOMICS,    RELIGION   AND   CHARITY      1 37 

for  the  intentions  of  the  gild.  Never  perhaps, 
except  in  apostolic  days,  did  men  appreciate  more 
highly  the  value  of  the  Holy  Sacrifice.  Among 
the  items  enumerated  in  its  list  of  possessions,  are 
"  many  books,  vestments,  chalices,  and  other  or- 
naments for  the  chaplains  of  the  said  gild."  Fur- 
ther items  of  expense  were  the  "  wax  for  lights 
in  the  said  church  and  chapels,  in  the  honor  and 
laud  of  the  Holy  Trinity  "  and  "  torches  at  the 
funerals  of  poor  brethren,  and  so  on."  If  any 
one  of  the  chaplains  should  ever  fail  to  give  the 
edification  which  men  might  rightfully  expect  of 
him,  the  gild  provided  that  he  should  be  removed, 
and  another,  "  able  and  honest,"  should  be  ap- 
pointed in  his  place.  The  souls  of  the  gildsmen 
were  thus  assured  of  every  possible  spiritual  bene- 
fit and  assistance.  The  zeal  of  the  chaplains  was 
not,  of  course,  to  be  limited  by  the  duties  here 
described,  and  even  their  prayers,  according  to 
gild  ordinances,  were,  in  particular,  to  secure 
the  welfare  of  the  entire  Kingdom. 

The  additional  usages  and  customs  of  the  gild 
indicate  the  care  taken  to  give  instant  relief  to 
the  soul  of  a  departed  gildsman  that  it  might  ob- 
tain as  soon  as  possible  the  remission  of  its  tem- 
poral punishment  and  enjoy  the  eternal  vision 
of  God.  Immediately  upon  the  death  of  a 
brother,  the  custom  prescribes  that: 

The  alderman  shall  order  solemn  Mass  to  be  celebrated  for 
him,   at  which  every  brother  of  the  said   gild  that  is  in  town, 


138  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

shall  make  his  offering;  and  further  the  alderman  shall  have 
every  chaplain  of  the  said  gild,  immediately  on  the  death  of  any 
brother,  to  say  thirty  Masses  for  the  deceased. 

The  works  of  charity  performed  by  the  gild 
were  in  proportion  to  its  religious  fervor.  Out 
of  the  profits  derived  from  the  gild  possessions  of 
many  kinds,  liberal  alms  were  yearly  given : 

Towards  the  support  of  the  poor  brethren  of  the  same  gild,  to 
the  blind,  lame  and  other  distressed  persons,  to  poor  clerks  keep- 
ing school,  and  poor  religious  houses  as  well  of  men  as  of 
women,  to  the  lepers  in  and  about  Lenne,  and  in  the  repairs 
and  so  forth  of  the  parish  church  and  chapels  aforesaid,  and  in 
the  ornaments  of  the  same,  together  with  the  alms  given  to  the 
four  orders  of  friars  in  Lenne,  and  to  the  maintaining  of  sev- 
eral aqueducts  for  the  use  of  said  town. 

Such  is  the  testimony  of  the  writ  of  inquiry  made 
in  the  reign  of  Richard  II. 

The  gildsman,  himself,  was  assured  his  support 
no  matter  what  fortune  might  befall  him.  "  If 
any  brother,"  reads  the  fifth  of  the  additional  or- 
dinances, "  shall  become  poor  and  needy,  he  shall 
be  supported  in  food  and  clothing  according  to 
his  exigency,  out  of  the  profits  of  the  lands  and 
tenants,  goods  and  chattels  of  the  said  gild."  In 
case  of  death  he  was  to  be  "  honorably  buried  "  at 
the  expense  of  the  gild.  To  make  sure  that  no 
human  misery  would  be  overlooked  in  the  town, 
it  was  made  the  sacred  duty  of  the  alderman  and 
leading  gild  officials,  "  to  visit,  four  times  a  year, 
all  the  infirm,  all  that  are  in  want,  need,  poverty. 


ECONOMICS,    RELIGION   AND    CHARITY       1 39 

and  to  minister  and  relieve  all  such  out  of  the  alms 
of  the  said  gild." 

In  order  that  the  Lynn  gild  may  not  be  taken  as 
an  isolated  example,  we  may  briefly  summarize 
the  religious  characteristics  of  the  similar  mer- 
chant gild  in  Coventry.  It  obtained  its  charter 
from  Edward  III  in  1340.  Its  statutes,  written 
in  Old  French,  may  be  found  to-day  among  the 
royal  charters.  The  reasons  urged  for  its  es- 
tablishment were  the  economic  difficulties  expe- 
rienced by  its  merchants  and  craftsmen  because  of 
the  fact  that  Coventry  lies  at  a  considerable  dis- 
tance from  the  sea. 

The  first  concern  of  the  "  brethren  and  sisters  '* 
of  the  gild  was  to  secure  as  many  chaplains,  and 
therefore  as  many  Masses,  as  their  means  per- 
mitted, without  sacrificing  other  important  ob- 
jects. Enough  money  was  always  to  be  on  hand 
to  provide  for  any  brother  or  sister  who  might 
have  fallen  into  poverty.  There  was  no  need  of 
countless  sickness,  old  age,  accident  and  other  in- 
surances, since  the  simple  gild  ideal  was  to  help  a 
brother  whenever  and  however  he  might  need 
help.  The  assistance  given  was  not  to  be  pro- 
portioned by  the  amount  he  had  paid,  but  by 
the  extent  of  the  charity  he  might  require.  Be- 
sides attending  to  the  material  need  of  its  own 
brethren  and  sisters,  the  gild  supported  thirty-one 
men  and  women  who  were  unable  to  gain  their 
own  livelihood.     It  furthermore  kept  a  free  lodg- 


I40  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

ing  house  with  thirteen  beds  for  poor  folk  making 
religious  pilgrimages  or  for  any  other  "  works  of 
charity  in  honor  of  God  and  of  His  Saints."  An 
officer  was  kept  at  the  house  to  provide  for  the 
wants  of  the  poor  and  a  woman  to  wash  the  feet 
of  the  pilgrims  and  perform  whatever  corporal 
acts  of  mercy  Christian  charity  might  suggest. 
On  the  great  gild  feast  of  our  Lady's  Assumption, 
all  the  poor  in  the  care  of  the  gild  were  newly 
clad  in  her  honor. 

Besides  performing  all  these  works  the  gild  was 
able,  at  the  time  of  which  we  write,  to  support  out 
of  the  rent  of  its  gild  lands,  four  chaplains.  They 
were  to  offer  Masses  and  pray  for  the  welfare  of 
the  entire  Church,  of  the  King  and  Queen,  of  the 
hierarchy  and  nobility,  of  all  the  commonalty  of 
the  realm,  and  for  the  brethren  and  sisters  of  the 
gild  and  its  benefactors.  The  latter,  as  was  the 
custom,  had  at  times  bestowed  lands  and  houses 
upon  the  gild  to  increase  its  annual  income,  and 
consequently  its  possibility  for  doing  good.  It 
was  rich,  moreover,  in  precious  chalices,  vestments 
and  church  ornaments. 

Not  only  were  Masses  to  be  offered  liberally  for 
the  departed  brethren  and  sisters,  but  they  were 
to  be  given  a  memento  by  name,  in  every  Mass, 
for  an  entire  year.  Such  apparently  is  the  mean- 
ing of  one  of  the  gild  statutes.  The  names,  more- 
over, were  to  be  written  on  a  tablet  and  placed 
at  the  altar  where  the  Masses  were  sung.     Those 


ECONOMICS,    RELIGION   AND    CHARITY       I4I 

who  died  in  poverty  were  no  less  honorably 
buried,  "  as  becomes  a  brother  or  sister  of  the 
gild,"  To  preserve  the  high  moral  standard  of 
the  society  no  man  or  woman  openly  suspected  of 
any  shameful  sin  could  be  admitted.  One  who 
was  already  a  member  of  the  gild  was  instantly 
expelled  if  found  guilty. 

Religion,  therefore,  in  the  minds  of  the  gilds- 
men,  was  not  a  mere  humanitarianism,  such  as  is 
preached  by  so-called  Christian  Socialists.  It  im- 
plied a  complete  compliance  with  faith,  dogma  and 
external  worship,  as  well  as  a  regard  for  the  tem- 
poral wants  of  the  neighbor.  It  was  all  that 
Christ  wished  it  to  be  when  He  instituted  His  one, 
infallible  Church.  To  carry  out  in  our  own  day 
the  economic,  social  and  civic  duties  which  are 
implied  in  the  faithful  observance  of  all  the  teach- 
ings of  this  Church  is  often  difficult  in  the  ex- 
treme. It  is,  therefore,  all  the  more  necessary 
that  we  look  from  time  to  time  at  the  true  ideal 
as  we  find  it  expressed,  in  spite  of  abuses,  in  many 
of  the  gilds  which  flourished  during  the  course 
of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Aside  from  economic  gilds,  it  should  here  be 
noted,  there  were  also  purely  religious  and 
benevolent  gilds  from  which  the  former  not  sel- 
dom developed.  The  science  of  philanthropy 
was  never  again  to  reach  the  development  it  at- 
tained in  the  Middle  Ages,  but  it  was  inspired  by 
religion   and   therefore   became   charity   because 


142  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

done  in  the  name  of  Christ.  The  charity  of  the 
monks  was  not,  as  modern  ignorance  of  medieval 
history  often  assumes,  a  mere  reckless  prodigality. 
It  was  truly  scientific,  providing  opportunities  of 
labor  to  the  unemployed  as  well  as  affording  food 
and  lodging.  Above  all  it  remedied  the  evils  of 
society  at  their  very  source  as  we  have  never  been 
able  to  do  in  our  later,  self-glorious  days.  The 
final  test,  however,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  it  was 
absolutely  eflicient  and  effective,  so  that  pauper- 
ism was  unknown  in  its  time,  but  at  once  came 
into  being,  like  an  overwhelming  catastrophe,  with 
the  passing  of  the  medieval  monastery.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  charity  dispensed  by  the 
gilds.  This  truth  must  doubtless  have  become 
sufficiently  apparent,  but  a  brief  reference  may 
here  be  made  to  two  religious  gilds,  that  of  the 
Palmers  at  Ludlow  and  the  Gild  of  the  Blessed 
Virgin  Mary  at  Hull.  As  an  instance  of  scien- 
tific charity  we  here  adduce  the  following  statute 
from  the  latter : 

If  it  befall  that  any  of  the  gild,  either  a  brother  or  an  un- 
married sister,  being  young  and  able  to  work,  has,  through  mis- 
hap, become  so  poor  that  help  is  much  needed,  there  shall  be 
paid  to  him,  out  of  the  goods  of  the  gild,  as  a  free  grant  for 
one  year,  ten  shillings,  to  enable  him  to  follow  his  own  calling 
in  such  manner  as  he  thinks  best  {ad  mercandisandum  ad  opus 
suum  proprium,  prout  sibi  melius  vider'tt  expedire).  And  if, 
owing  to  weakness  or  any  other  cause  that  may  be  excused,  he 
is  not  able  to  earn  back  the  ten  shillings  during  the  first  year,  he 
shall  be  let  keep  the  money  during  another  year.  If  at  the  end 
of  the  two  years  he  is  not  able  to  earn  back  the  ten  shillings^ 


ECONOMICS,    RELIGION   AND    CHARITY       1 43 

nor  to  make  increase  thereupon,  nor  to  live  on  his  own,  he  may 
keep  the  money  for  yet  another  year,  in  order  that  he  may  make 
a  profit  out  of  it.  If  at  the  end  of  the  third  year  he  is  unable 
to  earn  back,  beyond  what  is  his  own,  the  ten  shillings  with  an 
increase,  then  the  money  shall  be  wholly  released  to  him.^ 

While  unemployment,  poverty  and  beggary 
were  thus  scientifically  averted  In  the  spirit  of 
Christ,  the  social  evil  was  similarly  warded  off 
by  preventive  means  and  Christian  love.  Here, 
for  example,  Is  a  statute  from  the  Palmers'  Gild 
that  might  be  paralleled  by  countless  similar  ordi- 
nances : 

If  any  good  girl  of  the  gild,  of  marriageable  age,  cannot 
have  the  means  found  by  her  father,  either  to  go  into  a  re- 
ligious house  or  to  marry,  whichever  she  wishes  to  do,  friendly 
and  right  help  shall  be  given  her,  out  of  our  means  and  our 
common  chest,  towards  enabling  her  to  do  whatever  of  the  two 
she  wishes.^ 

All  other  material  evils  were  remedied  with  the 
same  generosity,  that  looked  only  to  the  extent  of 
the  suffering  to  be  relieved  or  the  greatness  of 
the  danger  to  be  averted.  Thus  the  same  gild, 
which  was  founded  in  1284,  gave  help  in  fire, 
theft,  shipwreck  or  any  other  mishap,  provided 
only  that  the  members  had  been  actually  Impov- 
erished. In  grievous  sickness  the  brethren  and 
sisters  were  to  be  aided  until  restored  to  health. 
"  But  If  any  one  becomes  a  leper,  or  blind,  or 
smitten  with  any  other  incurable  disorder  (which 

2  Joshua  Toulmin  Smith,  "English  Gilds,"  pp.  156,  157. 
*  Ibid.,  p.  194. 


144  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

God  forbid!),  we  wish  that  the  goods  of  the  gild 
shall  be  largely  bestowed  on  him."  Nor  did  the 
charity  of  the  gildsmen  remain  at  home,  though  it 
quite  properly  began  there.  Thus  the  statutes 
of  the  Gild  of  St.  Omar  in  Flanders,  existing  in 
the  early  part  of  the  twelfth  century,  conclude 
with  the  order  to  remember  all  the  poor  and  the 
lepers:  "  Postea  autem  omnes  posteros  in  XPO 
monemus  ut  pauperum  ac  leprosorum  miserean- 
tur."  * 

That  the  real  progress  towards  industrial  de- 
mocracy which  we  find  in  the  merchant  gilds  on 
their  economic  side  was  due  to  the  Catholic  re- 
ligion rather  than  to  any  material  cause  must  be 
obvious  to  the  intelligent  student.  In  a  volume 
on  economic  problems,  published  by  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago  Press,  Mr.  Walton  Hale  Hamil- 
ton draws  the  following  impartial  conclusions  in 
this  regard: 

The  town  was  born  in  an  atmosphere  saturated  with  the 
spirit  of  medieval  Catholicism.  Brotherhood  and  equality  had 
long  been  preached  by  the  Church.  Vertical,  or  inter-class 
equality  was  never  realized,  either  in  chivalry  or  in  the  Church. 
But  many  medieval  institutions  presented  a  fair  semblance 
of  horizontal,  or  intra-class  equality.  It  was  under  the  influ- 
ence of  ecclesiastical  precedents  that  the  towns  established  their 
new  organizations.  A  study  of  the  characteristic  features  of 
the  gilds  shows  how  great  was  the  number  of  things  to  which 
they  were  indebted  to  religious  institutions,  and  how  few  were 
the  real  innovations  springing  out  of  the  newly  created  urban 

*  Memoires  de  la  Soc.  des  Antiquaires  de  la  Morinie,  XVII. 
(Gross.) 


ECONOMICS,    RELIGION  AND    CHARITY       1 45 

life.  Influenced  by  such  habits  of  thought  and  freed  from  the 
obstacles  opposed  by  an  already  stratified  society,  the  merchant 
gild  legislated  with  the  end  in  view  of  placing  social  interests 
above  class  or  individual  interests.^ 

This  last  is  clearly  the  supreme  ideal  to  be  kept 
in  view  in  all  social  organization  and  legislation. 
Yet  who  indeed  can  fail  to  realize  how  far  in  this 
particular  we  have  fallen  short  of  the  social  prog- 
ress made  in  the  Middle  Ages,  even  at  the  very 
beginning  of  their  first  economic  organizations,  the 
merchant  gilds?  What  was  true  of  them  was  no 
less  true  of  all  the  medieval  gilds,  even  of  those 
whose  prime  object  may  seem  to  have  been  the 
acting  of  mystery  plays  and  the  presentation  of 
pageants.  They  too,  as  Bishop  Stubbs  says,  were 
organized  for  charity  and  prayer:  "  It  was  with 
this  idea  that  men  gave  large  estates  in  land  to 
the  gilds,  which  down  to  the  Reformation  formed 
an  organized  administration  of  relief."  ^ 

5  "  Current  Economic  Problems,"  p.  24. 

"  "  Constitutional  History  of  England,"  III,  p.  648. 


CHAPTER     XV 

A  FIFTEENTH  CENTURY  GILD 

THE  widespread  activity  and  the  great 
civic  power  of  the  old  merchant  gilds  has 
already  been  made  sufficiently  clear. 
The  most  authentic  sources  of  information  are 
fortunately  available  to  us  in  the  many  gild  ordi- 
nances that  have  been  preserved  among  the  royal 
charters  and  other  ancient  documents.  Like  all 
gild  records  they  are  the  most  precious  historic 
monuments  of  the  life  of  the  people  at  the  period 
to  which  they  belong.  For  the  student  of  social 
problems  they  are  a  veritable  treasure-trove. 

In  the  present  instance  we  shall  select  from 
these  scattered  documents  the  statutes  of  an  insti- 
tution existing  at  the  period  when  the  craft  gilds, 
which  we  are  next  to  consider,  had  already  at- 
tained their  full  development.  While  normally 
the  merchant  gild  was  first  chartered  as  the  only 
economic  association  of  the  early  English  towns 
until  the  craft  gilds  arose  and  finally  supplanted  it, 
we  here  find  an  institution  which  draws  up  new 
legislation  for  the  various  trade  organizations  of 
its  city  that  are  all  gathered  in  a  friendly  way  be- 

146 


A    FIFTEENTH    CENTURY   GILD  1 47 

neath  Its  aegis.  Its  ordinances,  constitutions  and 
articles,  we  are  Informed  In  the  preamble  to  the 
gild  statutes,  were  drawn  up 

By  the  kynges  commaundement  and  by  the  hole  assent  of  the 
citesens  inhabitants  in  the  Cyte  of  Worcester  at  their  yeld 
merchant  (meeting  of  their  Merchant  Gild),  holden  the  Sonday 
in  the  feste  of  the  exaltacion  of  the  holy  crosse,  the  yere  of  the 
reigne  of  kynge  Edward  the  fourth,  after  the  conquest  the  VI.^ 

The  institution  of  the  merchant  gild  had  at  this 
period  existed  in  England  for  four  centuries.  At 
the  time  in  question  it  was  already  In  general  sup- 
planted by  the  trade  gilds.  In  Worcester,  as  the 
statutes  show,  it  coexisted  with  them  and  finally, 
by  common  consent,  even  legislated  for  them. 
It  may  In  fact,  In  the  present  instance,  be  consid- 
ered as  an  entirely  new  institution  resembling  the 
old  merchant  gilds  which  belonged  to  an  earlier 
date.  The  present  ordinances  therefore  embody 
the  result  of  earlier  regulations,  while  they  Intro- 
duce us  to  a  later  and  far  more  complex  state  of 
economic  development.  These  facts  render  them 
doubly  interesting.  The  original  statutes  may  be 
found  to-day  in  the  archives  of  the  city  of  Wor- 
cester. 

To  begin  with,  the  shrewd  old  burgesses  well  un- 
derstood the  weakness  of  human  nature,  and  knew 
how  even  Judas  was  tempted  while  carrying  the 
purse.  They  did  not  know  of  our  modern  graft 
and  peculation,  but  they  were  wisely  beforehand 

^  September  14,  1467. 


148  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

in  preventing,  as  far  as  possible,  the  first  begin- 
nings of  such  a  condition.  Great  sums  of  money 
constantly  came  into  their  treasury  and  were  paid 
out  from  it.  Their  statutes  therefore  ordained 
that  there  should  be  "  a  stronge  comyn  cofur  wt 
VI  keyes,  to  kepe  yn  ther  tresour."  These  six 
keys  were  held  respectively  by  the  high  bailiff,  by 
one  of  the  aldermen,  by  the  chamberlain  chosen 
"  by  the  grete  clothynge  "  and  by  another  similar 
official  chosen  by  the  commoners.  The  remaining 
two  keys  were  then  consigned  to  two  "  thrifty 
comyners,  trewe  sufficiant,  and  feithfulle  men." 
Collusion  between  these  officials  was  practically 
impossible. 

The  protective  measures  of  the  gild  were  very 
simple.  A  distinction  was  made  between  "  foreyn 
burgers "  and  simple  strangers.  The  former 
dwelled  in  the  city  and  payed  common  taxes  with 
the  citizens,  and  consequently  enjoyed  commercial 
privileges  not  granted  to  mere  strangers.  Va- 
rious restrictions  however  applied  to  both  classes. 
Thus  neither  a  foreign  burgher  nor  a  stranger 
could  buy  barley  or  malt  until  the  town  brewers 
and  malt-makers  had  been  served.  The  gildsmen 
were  ordinarily  very  definite  in  their  ordinances, 
and  so  to  avoid  possible  confusion  here,  the  hour 
at  which  purchases  might  be  made  by  foreign  citi- 
zens and  strangers  was  set  at  eleven  of  the  bell  in 
summer  and  at  twelve  in  the  winter  season. 

For  the  privilege  of  standing  in  the  gild  hall 


A    FIFTEENTH    CENTURY   GILD  1 49 

Strangers  were  to  pay  id.  every  market  day,  and 
2d.  every  fair  day.  "  Also  that  no  manner  foreyn 
(foreigner)  sille  (sell)  no  lether  in  the  seid  cite, 
but  it  be  in  the  yelde  (gild)  halle  of  the  same, 
payinge  for  the  custom  of  every  dyker,  id." 

How  great  the  municipal  powers  of  the  gild 
were  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  it  is  ordained 
in  statute  38  that  no  citizen  be  put  in  the  common 
prison,  but  in  one  of  the  chambers  of  the  gild  hall, 
unless  he  be  committed  for  felony  or  murder  or 
some  other  heinous  trespass  or  for  a  considerable 
debt.  Regulations  are  likewise  made  for  the  po- 
lice sergeant,  who  for  "  attachment  of  any  goods  " 
at  the  request  of  a  stranger  may  take  2d.  for  his 
fee  from  a  stranger,  but  nothing  from  a  citizen. 
The  fee  he  may  take  from  citizens  in  serving  a 
capias  for  them  under  certain  circumstances  is 
strictly  limited  to  2d.  Persons  under  arrest  were 
to  be  given  the  choice  of  three  courses  by  the  bailiff. 
Either  they  were  to  accept  a  reasonable  fine,  or 
be  amerced  by  two  assessors,  or  else  seek  trial  be- 
fore a  jury  of  twelve  men.  The  gild  prescribed 
the  qualifications  of  the  jurymen,  the  duty  of  the 
sergeant  impanelling  the  jury  and  the  method  of 
trial. 

Not  only  did  it  solve  the  police  and  the  prison 
problem,  but  it  likewise  legislated  to  prevent  un- 
employment within  the  city  and  conducted  a  very 
effective  employment  bureau.  Thus  no  working 
people  from  out  of  town  could  be  employed  to  the 


150  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

injury    of   the   workingmen    in   the   town.     The 
method  of  hiring  labor  is  thus  described: 

Also  it  ys  ordeyned  by  this  present  yelde,  that  all  manner 
laborers  that  wolle  be  hyred  wtyn  (wish  to  be  hired  within) 
the  cyte,  that  they  stonde  dayly  at  Grascroys  (at  the  Gross- 
Cross)  on  the  werkedays  wtyn  the  seid  cite,  ther  redy  to  alle  per- 
sones  suche  as  wolle  hyre  hem  (wish  to  hire  them)  to  their  cer- 
teyn  labor,  for  reasonable  summes;  In  the  somer  season  at  V  of 
the  Belle  in  the  mornynge,  and  in  the  wynter  season  at  VI.  And 
that  proclamation  be  made  at  iiij  (four)  places  assigned,  ij 
times  a  quarter,  by  the  Belmon  (bellman)  of  the  citee. 

A  considerable  labor  population  had  by  this 
time  arisen  and  the  gild  was  concerned  in  many 
ways  about  their  welfare.  In  particular  did  it 
legislate  against  the  abuse  which  was  creeping  in 
of  paying  the  workingman  in  kind.  They  must  be 
paid  in  gold  or  silver,  and  not  by  "  mercery,  vi- 
telle,"  etc.  No  butcher  was  to  occupy  the  craft 
of  a  cook,  and  so  deprive  the  latter  of  his  living. 
To  prevent  overproduction  on  the  one  hand  or  an 
insufficiency  of  food  on  the  other  the  wardens  of 
the  Bakers  Craft  were  every  Saturday  to  deter- 
mine the  amount  of  bread  that  was  to  be  baked 
during  the  following  week.  The  same  regulations 
was  made  for  the  ale.  A  special  ordinance  was 
made  for  the  tilers : 

And  that  the  Tylers  of  the  cite  sett  no  parliament  amonge 
them,  to  make  eny  of  them  to  be  as  a  maister,  and  alle  other 
tylers  to  be  as  his  seruants  and  at  his  commandment,  but  that 
euery  tyler  be  ffree  to  come  and  go  to  worche  wt  every  man 
and  citezen,  frely  as  they  may  accorde,  in  pcyn  xx.s.  and  lesynge 


A    FIFTEENTH    CENTURY   GILD  15I 

of  his  ffraunches   (losing  his  franchise)   of  hjrm  thay  be  found 
in  defaut 

While  considering  the  interests  of  the  crafts- 
man, the  gild  never  forgot  the  paramount  good  of 
the  public.  Thus  each  tyler  was  obliged  to  set 
his  mark  upon  every  tile  he  made,  "  to  that  ende, 
yf  it  be  defective  or  smalle,  that  men  may  remedy 
of  the  seid  partie,  as  lawe  and  reasonne  requirith." 
As  often  as  a  man  refused  to  mark  a  tile  he  was 
to  pay  20s.  into  the  common  treasury.  In  the 
same  way,  to  see  that  the  ale  was  good  and  fit  to 
drink,  two  "  ale  conners  of  sadd  and  discrete  per- 
sones  "  were  appointed  on  election  day  to  test  its 
quality.  The  price  of  the  ale  was  fixed  at  every 
law  day.  Particular  care  was  taken  that  the 
"  great  enquest  "  which  was  to  decide  the  price 
was  not  made  up  "  to  the  half  partye  or  more  "  of 
brewers.  There  was,  moreover,  to  be  a  public 
measure  "  to  mete  ale  wt."  The  consumer  could 
hardly  have  been  better  protected.  It  is  in  this 
particular  again  that  our  modern  organizations, 
whether  of  laborers  or  employers,  have  much  to 
learn  from  the  medieval  gilds. 

The  merchants  likewise  were  to  have  their  pro- 
tection. No  one  was  to  forestall  the  market,  by 
selling  before  the  appointed  time  or  out  of  the 
appointed  place.  Buying  up  large  quantities  to 
sell  at  a  high  price  was  prevented.  No  ale  could 
be  sold  unless  there  was  a  sign  at  the  door,  and 
similarly  no  inn  could  be  kept  except  under  this 


152  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

provision.  Cases  of  debt  were  tried  in  the  gild 
hall. 

The  gild  provided  not  only  for  the  work  done 
to-day  in  a  very  perfunctory  way  by  a  pure  food 
commission,  but  likewise  took  the  place  of  the 
modern  health  department.  All  fish  were  to  be 
examined  in  the  market  to  see  that  they  were  fit  to 
be  eaten.  Bridges  were  inspected  and  repaired. 
Cleanliness  and  health  were  to  be  guarded  by  the 
gild  officials.  The  water  near  Severn  bridge  was 
kept  pure.  The  ordinances  contained  regulations 
of  every  kind  for  the  prevention  of  fires,  and  es- 
tablished a  mounted  bucket  brigade.  The  gilds- 
men  likewise  saw  to  the  gates  and  the  town  wall, 
ready  to  protect  their  city  against  any  attack,  and 
to  fight  shoulder  to  shoulder  against  a  common 
foe. 

The  triple  institution  of  craftsmen,  journeymen 
and  apprentices  was  already  perfectly  developed 
within  the  city  of  Worcester  at  the  period  when 
these  statutes  were  made.  The  craft  gilds  like- 
wise were  in  flourishing  condition.  All  these  in- 
stitutions and  organizations,  however,  were  uni- 
fied by  the  merchant  gild.  It  prescribed  how  a 
craftsman  coming  into  the  city  could  be  admitted 
to  his  craft  and  set  up  his  shop,  and  under  what 
conditions  a  journeyman  from  without  could  re- 
ceive permission  to  exercise  his  trade.  In  all 
these  cases  the  individuals  were  referred  to  the 
wardens  of  the  craft  gilds  and  paid  their  yearly 


A    FIFTEENTH    CENTURY   GILD  1 53 

contributions  for  the  religious  pageants  and  for 
the  candles  required  on  these  occasions.  The 
great  feast  of  the  gild  was  the  Nativity  of  Saint 
John  the  Baptist. 

To  obtain  burgess  (citizenship)  rights  a  pay- 
ment was  required  from  which  the  sons  of  a  bur- 
gess and  every  apprentice  who  had  served  seven 
years  —  the  full  term  of  apprenticeship  —  were 
excepted.  All  the  above  articles  and  the  other 
ordinances  and  constitutions  were  to  be  "  openly 
redde  and  declared  at  euery  law  day  next  after 
the  feste  of  Seynt  Michell  the  Archangelle,  yf  it 
be  desired." 

Institutions  more  or  less  similar  to  the  English 
merchant  gilds  existed  also  upon  the  Continent, 
but  in  many  cases  there  was  question  merely  of 
associations  of  merchants,  in  our  modern  sense 
of  the  word  and  not  of  town  gilds  in  which  all 
participated.  The  same  is  true  also  of  many  of 
the  later  English  merchant  gilds,  as  when  we  read 
in  the  public  records  of  a  petition  from  the  Com- 
mons to  Parliament  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III, 
printed  among  their  Rolls, ^  that  certain  whole- 
sale merchants  had  formed  themselves  into  a  gild 
whose  real  purpose  was  not  the  common  good, 
but  to  create  a  monopoly  for  themselves.  In  this 
association  we  already  find  the  commercial  in- 
iquities of  modern  capitalism  clearly  fore- 
shadowed.    It    was    called   the    Grocers'     (i.  e., 

2  Rot.  Pari.  II,  278. 


154  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

grossers)  Gild,  because  its  members  "  en- 
grossed," or  in  our  modern  parlance  "  cornered," 
the  merchandise  upon  the  market.  The  com- 
plaint of  the  Commons  therefore  was : 

That  great  mischiefs  had  newly  arisen,  as  well  to  the  King  as 
to  the  great  naen  and  Connmons,  from  the  merchants  called 
grocers  (grossers),  who  engrossed  all  manner  of  merchandise 
vendible,  and  who  suddenly  raised  the  prices  of  such  merchan- 
dise within  the  realm,  putting  to  sale,  by  covin  and  by  ordi- 
nances made  among  themselves,  in  their  own  society  which  they 
called  the  fraternity  and  gild  of  merchants,  such  merchandises  as 
were  most  dear,  and  keeping  in  store  the  others  until  times  of 
dearth  and  scarcity.^ 

Here,  therefore,  we  behold  the  vices  which  the 
Church  had  been  successfully  combating  all  these 
years  breaking  out  anew,  until  they  finally  gained 
complete  control  under  the  post-Reformation  cap- 
italism when  the  suppression  of  her  influence  in 
industrial  and  commercial  life  had  been  brought 
about.  Long  before  this  period  we  can  perceive, 
with  the  lessening  of  faith  or  devotion,  the  growth 
of  oligarchy  and  monopoly  in  England. 

Mention  of  a  merchant  gild  in  Paris  occurs  in 
a  document  dating  back  to  the  year  1121.  In 
Spain  also  the  merchant  gild  preceded  the  craft 
gild.  The  oldest  known  gild  record  in  that  coun- 
try, drawn  up  under  King  Alphonso  VII  (1126— 
1 157),  refers  to  the  confradia  of  the  merchants 
of  Soria.^     In  Florence  the  consules  of  the  mer- 

8  Rot.  Pari.  II,  279. 

*  R.  Leonard,  "  Ueber  Handiuerkgilden  und  Verbriiderungen 
in  Spanien." 


A   FIFTEENTH    CENTURY   GILD  1 55 

chant  gild  first  appear  in  1 182  in  an  original  docu- 
ment.^ Everywhere  we  can  trace  the  same  course 
of  economic  development,  from  agriculture  to 
commercial  and  then  to  craft  organization.  But 
in  England  alone  do  we  find  the  universal  develop- 
ment of  the  merchant  gild  as  a  true  town  organ- 
ization in  its  early  period,  so  that  by  the  end  of 
the  thirteenth  century  eighty-two  out  of  102  Eng- 
lish towns  had  their  flourishing  merchant  gilds. 
Only  later  were  merchant  gilds  in  England  also 
to  become  mere  gilds  of  business  men,  established 
for  foreign  commerce  or  the  control  of  some  par- 
ticular trade  within  their  own  town. 

In  this  connection  it  is  important  to  remember 
the  three  meanings,  which  as  C.  Gross  points 
out,  the  word  "  merchant  "  implied  at  three  differ- 
ent periods  of  English  history: 

At  first  it  embraced  all  who,  in  their  trade,  were  in  any  way 
connected  with  buying  and  selling,  including  petty  shopkeepers 
and  many  handicraftsmen.  During  the  fifteenth  and  the  great 
part  of  the  sixteenth  century  it  applied  preeminently  to  all  who 
made  a  business  of  buying  for  resale  —  retailers  as  well  as 
wholesalers  —  manual  craftsmen  not  being  included.  It  then 
came  to  have  its  present  significance  of  an  extensive  dealer.  In 
this  conception  the  old  "gild  merchant"  represents  the  first 
stage;  the  "companies  of  merchants"  the  second;  the  "staplers" 
and  "  merchant  adventurers  "  the  third.^ 

Merchant  staplers  were  those  who,  under  the 

5  Santini,  " Documenti  dell'  antica  costituzione  del  Comune  di 
Firenze,  p.  18. 

•"The  Gild  Merchant,"  I,  p.  157. 


156  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

British  Administration,  exported  the  principal  raw 
materials  after  the  export  trade  had  passed  from 
the  hands  of  the  German  Hanse  merchants.  The 
staples  themselves  were  specified  towns  to  which 
these  wares  had  to  be  brought  for  sale  or  expor- 
tation. Merchant  adventurers  constituted  a 
private  company  whose  members  held  the  monop- 
oly of  exporting  certain  manufactured  articles. 
So  the  word,  which  at  first  practically  applied 
to  every  independent  craftsman,  finally  came  to 
receive  its  present  significance  and  contains  in 
Its  various  meanings  an  entire  history  of  social 
development. 


CHAPTER     XVI 

FIRST  CHRISTIAN  TRADE  UNIONS 

THE  origin  of  craft  gilds,  or  Christian 
trade  unions,  the  most  important  social 
institutions  of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  in- 
deed of  all  history,  followed  directly  upon  the  de- 
velopment of  the  merchant  gilds.  The  purpose 
of  these  newly  arisen  organizations  of  specialized 
craftsmen  was  the  mutual  protection  of  their 
members;  the  promotion  of  the  common  indus- 
trial and  commercial  interests  of  the  city  as  well 
as  of  their  own  fraternity;  and  the  fostering  of 
that  spirit  of  brotherhood,  based  upon  super- 
natural motives,  which  was  to  last  through  life 
and  continue  beyond  the  shadow  of  death. 

Before  approaching  this  important  subject  a 
short  review  will  be  in  place  to  trace  the  various 
stages  of  development  that  finally  led  to  the  or- 
ganization of  the  free  craft  gilds. 

Agriculture,  as  we  have  seen,  was  almost  the 
universal  employment  of  men  during  the  period 
of  social  reconstruction,  after  the  tidal  wave  of 
pagan  barbarism  had  swept  over  the  civilization 
of  Europe  and  the  Church  began  anew  her  work 
of  Christianizing  and  civilizing  the  world.  Spe- 
cialized craftsmen  were  rare  or  unknown  in  com- 

157 


158  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

munities  where  each  family  built  its  own  home, 
spun  its  own  clothing,  and  drew  its  sustenance 
from  the  flocks  it  reared  and  the  crops  it  planted. 
There  was  consequently  only  a  very  gradually  de- 
veloping need  of  them.  Over  all  Europe  the  re- 
ligious communities  of  this  period  were  the  cen- 
ters of  economic  development  as  they  were  the 
hearths  that  kept  alive  the  spark  of  learning  be- 
neath the  cinders  of  almost  universal  destruction. 
They  were  in  turn  to  become  the  first  trade  schools 
as  previously  they  had  taught  the  cultivation  of 
the  soil  to  the  roaming  hordes  of  barbarians,  and 
in  due  time  were  to  hold  up  for  their  descendants 
the  torch  of  learning  and  unseal  for  them  the  wis- 
dom of  the  ages. 

It  was  still,  however,  a  far  cry  from  the  first 
scattered  craftsmen,  a  few  of  whom  might  suffice 
for  the  growing  village  communities,  and  the  or- 
ganized craft  gilds  which  were  to  play  so  impor- 
tant a  role  in  the  life  of  the  Middle  Ages.  As 
civilization  grew  more  complex  the  free  crafts- 
men, where  these  existed,  united  with  other  free- 
men of  their  communities  into  the  frith  or 
*'  peace  "  gilds  for  the  prevention  of  theft  and  the 
preservation  of  order.  In  the  course  of  time  the 
merchant  gilds  arose,  particularly  in  England. 
Since  craftsmen  were  likewise  merchants  at  this 
period  they  were,  in  the  latter  country  at  least,  ab- 
sorbed into  these  new  organizations,  in  which  the 
great  body  of  burghers  were   originally  united 


FIRST    CHRISTIAN   TRADE    UNIONS  1 59 

for  the  protection  -of  their  own  and  their  city's  in- 
terest and  trade. 

Often  the  same  men  were  both  the  gild  and 
the  town  officials.  Men  of  the  same  town  might, 
moreover,  still  remain  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
their  various  lords,  but  when  engaged  in  the  oc- 
cupations of  their  trade  or  the  sale  of  the  mer- 
chandise they  had  produced  they  were  all  mem- 
bers of  the  same  town  gild  and  subject  to  its  reg- 
ulations only. 

It  is  evident  that  in  none  of  these  stages  was 
there  any  call  for  specialized  gilds  of  artisans. 
But  the  towns  now  grew  rapidly  in  population. 
Economic  conditions  became  more  complex.  The 
villeins,  or  unfree  workmen,  were  fast  emanci- 
pating themselves.  The  ranks  of  free  craftsmen 
were  constantly  swelling.  The  merchant  gilds, 
where  they  existed,  no  longer  sufficed.  The  time 
was  ripe  for  a  new  stage  of  economic  develop- 
ment, and  the  craft  gilds,  which  answered  to  the 
growing  need,  sprang  into  being.  Soon  prac- 
tically everywhere  they  had  taken  their  place 
throughout  Christendom. 

Prescinding  from  the  unions  said  to  have  been 
organized  among  the  serfs,  the  beginning  of  the 
craft  gilds  proper  may  be  ascribed  to  the  early 
part  of  the  twelfth  century,  although  isolated  in- 
stances can  be  found  even  in  the  preceding  cen- 
tury. Thus  we  read  of  the  victory  won,  in  the 
year  1032,  by  the  Flemish  weavers  of  Courtrai 


l6o  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

in  the  defense  of  their  city.  Mention  is  made  of 
the  weavers  of  Mayence  in  1099.  In  Paris  there 
is  a  royal  confirmation,  in  1162,  of  the  consue- 
tudines  carnificum,  or  the  statutes  of  the  Butchers' 
Gild,  which  itself  dates  back  in  its  origin  to  the 
earliest  times.  The  church  of  St.  Pierre  aux 
Boeufs,  on  the  island  to  which  Paris  was  then  con- 
fined, is  thought  to  have  taken  its  name  from  this 
gild. 

Yet  in  practically  every  country  the  earliest 
known  gilds  were  the  gilds  of  the  weavers.  The 
first  craft  gilds  of  England  are  recorded  under 
the  reign  of  Henry  I,  1100-1133.  The  "Pipe 
Roll "  mentions  the  weavers'  gilds  of  Oxford, 
Huntington,  Winchester,  Lincoln,  London;  the 
fullers  of  Winchester  and  the  cordwainers  of  Ox- 
ford. Material  for  clothing  was  everywhere  the 
first  great  industrial  demand. 

Other  trade  gilds  followed  in  rapid  succession 
and  gradually  obtained  official  recognition  from 
the  Government  or  the  King.  In  11 30  the  Eng- 
lish gilds  of  weavers  at  London,  Lincoln  and  Ox- 
ford were  making  their  annual  remittance  to  the 
royal  treasury  in  return  for  their  official  recogni- 
tion. The  possibiHty  of  levying  additional  taxes 
may  often  have  been  no  slight  inducement  for 
granting  authorization  to  the  numerous  craft  gilds 
that  now  sprang  into  existence.  Gilds  not  thus 
authorized  were  known  as  "  adulterine."  They 
could  not  claim  the  privileges  of  chartered  organ- 


FIRST   CHRISTIAN   TRADE   UNIONS  l6l 

izations,  though  they  might  be  permitted  to  con- 
tinue unmolested.  The  new  gilds  were  the  more 
welcome  in  as  far  as  they  strengthened  the  au- 
thority of  the  ruling  sovereign  by  weakening  the 
power  of  the  barons.  Towards  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century  the  craft  gilds,  or  medieval 
trade  unions,  had  therefore  become  a  character- 
istic feature  in  the  industrial  life  of  England. 

The  unfolding  of  the  craft  gilds  in  England  was 
comparatively  normal,  and  outbreaks  of  violence 
were  apparently  rare.  The  merchant  gilds  of 
each  important  town,  as  has  been  shown,  had 
previously  embraced  the  craftsmen  as  well  as  the 
leading  burghers  occupied  in  other  pursuits. 
Gradually,  for  various  reasons,  the  craftsmen 
withdrew  from  this  larger  gild  to  form  organiza- 
tions restricted  more  or  less  to  their  own  trade. 
In  some  cases  they  may  still  for  a  time  have 
remained  members  of  the  original  gild.  Each 
withdrawal  of  a  craft  to  form  its  own  union  meant 
a  weakening  of  the  merchant  gild,  whose  province 
was  thus  ever  more  and  more  restricted,  since  its 
purpose  originally  had  been  the  monopoly  and 
control  of  the  municipal  trade  and  toll.  As  long 
as  the  communities  were  small  and  the  burghers 
were  practically  all  united  in  the  town  gild,  the 
need  of  craft  organizations  was  not  felt,  nor  were 
they  possible  in  many  cases.  As  the  towns  grew 
in  population  and  the  gilds  increased  in  size,  it 
was   natural  that   a   division   should  take  place. 


1 62  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

The  greater  and  more  prosperous  the  towns  the 
greater  also  was  the  division  of  labor.  In  smaller 
boroughs  the  merchant  gild  might  still  remain  in 
all  its  vigor,  but  in  the  larger  cities  the  aggregate 
of  the  craft  gilds  usually  took  over  the  functions 
and  the  power  that  had  once  belonged  to  the  an- 
cient merchant  gild,  which  ceased  to  be,  or  con- 
tinued merely  in  a  nominal  state.  In  some  cities 
its  name  was  still  applied  as  late  as  the  sixteenth 
and  seventeenth  centuries  to  the  entire  group  of 
craft  gilds.  In  other  instances  the  latter  were 
fused  again  into  a  single  body,  as  in  the  Worcester 
gild. 

Sooner  or  later,  however,  the  craft  gilds  dom- 
inated everywhere,  each  charged  with  the  control 
of  its  own  branch  of  industry,  under  municipal  or 
royal  authority.  The  vague  general  rule  that  the 
merchant  gild  was  prior  to  the  former  by  an  en- 
tire century  cannot  be  applied  upon  the  Conti- 
nent as  readily  as  in  England.  It  was  to  the  lat- 
ter country  alone  that  we  turned  to  study  in  detail 
the  systematic  development  of  the  merchant  gilds. 
Upon  the  Continent  their  appearance  was  spo- 
radic, while  they  often  differ  greatly  in  their  nature 
and  usually  were  purely  associations  of  business 
men.  The  craft  gilds,  however,  though  always 
enjoying  their  local  peculiarities,  were  sufficiently 
alike  to  allow  of  broad  generalization.  Their 
similarity  indeed  is  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
characteristics  of  the  Middle  Ages.     This   fact 


FIRST   CHRISTIAN   TRADE    UNIONS  1 63 

is  the  more  striking  when  we  consider  the  wide 
separation  in  space,  the  difficulty  of  communica- 
tion, and  the  practical  isolation  of  the  cities. 

How  far  the  English  merchant  gilds  themselves 
became  exclusive,  and  so  necessitated  the  forma- 
tion of  new  organizations,  it  is  difficult  to  say 
with  certainty.  In  not  a  few  of  the  towns  weav- 
ers and  fullers,  we  know,  were  denied  the  rights 
of  free  burgess  as  long  as  they  exercised  their 
trade.  As  one  of  the  comparatively  few  instances 
left  on  record  in  England,  we  may  mention  the 
laws  set  down  for  the  weavers  and  fullers  of  cer- 
tain cities  in  the  London  "  Book  of  Customs."  All 
sale  of  cloth,  wholesale  and  retail,  was  forbidden 
these  craftsmen,  and  legislation  was  enacted  that 
they  must  not  dispose  of  their  wares  even  outside 
the  town  limits,  lest  they  Interfere  with  the  trade 
of  the  local  gild.  They  were  thus  permitted  to 
dispose  of  their  cloth  to  no  one  except  the  town 
merchants.  Nor  was  this  their  only  grievance. 
Not  only  was  all  their  work  to  be  done  for  the 
"  good  men  "  of  the  town,  but  they  could  not  even 
practise  their  trade  itself  without  obtaining  the 
consent  of  the  former.  No  merchant  or  franke 
homme  could  be  brought  into  court  by  a  weaver 
or  fuller,  nor  could  the  latter  be  summoned  as  a 
witness  against  him.^  As  the  gildsmen  in  such 
Instances  had  grown  In  wealth  and  power  their 

1 W.  J.  Ashley,  "  An  Introduction  to  English  Economic  His- 
tory," Part  I,  p.  84. 


164  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

Christian  democratic  principles  had  apparently 
suffered  in  proportion.  A  Christian  renewal  was 
needed. 

Upon  the  Continent  itself  the  struggle  attending 
the  establishment  of  the  new  craft  gilds  was  far 
more  severe.  Of  this  we  shall  speak  in  the  fol- 
lowing chapter.  A  great  economic  readjustment 
was  taking  place  over  all  the  earth,  and  the  result 
was  to  be  the  wonderfully  organized  and  firmly 
established  craft-gild  system,  which  was  to  con- 
tinue supreme  and  intact  for  centuries. 


CHAPTER     XVII 

THE  WORLD'S  GREATEST  LABOR 
MOVEMENT 

TIERE  is  but  one  parallel  in  history  to  the 
universal  unrest  of  the  laboring  classes 
following  the  World  War,  and  their  ef- 
fective determination  to  better  their  economic  and 
social  conditions.  It  is  to  be  found  in  the  rise  of 
the  craft  gilds  upon  the  Continent.  Many  epochs 
of  "  storm  and  stress  "  and  various  periods  of 
world  conquest  had  preceded  this  event,  but  none 
of  these  ever  profoundly  affected  the  masses  of 
the  people  or  radically  altered  their  conditions  of 
life.  During  all  the  centuries  of  pagan  civiliza- 
tion, in  the  great  empires  of  the  ancient  world, 
the  laborers  as  a  class  might  change  their  mas- 
ters with  the  change  of  rulers  and  of  dynasties, 
but  they  could  not  better  their  position. 

Similarly  in  modern  times  the  great  industrial 
revolution,  which  completely  transformed  the 
methods  of  production,  left  the  worker  in  the 
most  helpless  dependence  on  capital  and  the  ma- 
chine. The  Reformation,  as  Protestant  econo- 
mists frankly  state,  had  but  hastened  this  result; 
"  The  later  Lutheran  overstress  on  the  rights  of 
the  individual,"  testifies  the  Rev.  Frank  Monroe 

165 


1 66  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

Crouch  in  the  Churchman,  *'  found  at  least  an  in- 
direct result  in  the  socio-political  philosophy  of 
laissez-faire,  which,  in  conjunction  with  the  indus- 
trial revolution,  brought  about  the  economic  con- 
ditions that  have  occasioned  widespread  revolt 
during  the  last  century,  both  in  Europe  and  Amer- 
ica." Luther's  own  remorseless  demand  for  the 
blood  of  the  warring  peasants  ended  his  prestige 
with  labor.*  So  too  the  French  Revolution, 
though  itself  partly  a  labor  movement  and  aris- 
ing out  of  the  conditions  of  extreme  social  oppres- 
sion then  existing,  was  local  in  its  action,  relent- 
lessly cruel,  bloody  and  irreligious  in  its  methods, 
and  terminated  in  the  elevation  of  a  courtezan  to 
the  altar  of  Notre  Dame  as  the  goddess  of  the 
new  liberty.  Its  final  result  was  the  subjection  of 
the  masses  to  the  merciless  exploitation  of  capi- 
talism. Stripped  of  his  last  right  of  organiza- 
tion the  laborer  was  now  rendered  more  helpless 
than  before.  His  lot,  indeed,  as  Pope  Leo  wrote, 
was  "  little  better  than  slavery."  ^ 

The  terrorism  of  the  French  Revolution  can 
almost  find  its  counterpart  in  some  of  the  more 
recent  excesses  of  Bolshevism.  Yet  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  labor  movement  throughout  the  world 
in  the  period  following  the  World  War  was  not 
to  be  obscured  by  these.  Unfortunately  the  in- 
jection of  the  spirit  of  irreligion  again  proved  it- 

1  Husslein  and  Reville,  "  What  Luther  Taught,"  chapter  VI. 
«  "  The  Condition  of  the  Working  Classes." 


world's  greatest  labor  movement     167 

self  the  greatest  peril  of  modern  labor,  precisely 
as  the  Faith  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  the  very 
strength  that  made  possible  the  winning  of  the 
only  universal  labor  victory  recorded  in  all  his- 
tory, a  victory  achieved  with  moderation  and  com- 
paratively few  outbreaks  of  violence,  if  we  con- 
sider the  universality  and  thoroughness  of  its  ef- 
fects. It  was  in  fact  to  last  on  unbroken  until 
the  coming  of  a  new  social  era. 

Everywhere  in  the  growing  medieval  towns, 
from  the  eleventh  to  the  thirteenth  century,  we 
find  the  gradual  banding  together  of  the  Catholic 
freemen  into  social  and  religious  unions  according 
to  their  respective  crafts.  They  little  realized 
that  they  were  launching  then  the  world's  greatest 
labor  movement.  They  were  in  fact  organizing 
the  first  Christian  trade  unions  to  work  out  in 
this  manner  their  more  complete  emancipation,  to 
maintain  their  industrial  and  civic  independence, 
to  preserve  within  their  own  hands,  though  under 
proper  sanction  of  legitimate  courts  and  rulers, 
the  control  of  the  various  trades  on  which  their 
livelihood  depended,  and  to  establish  on  a  true 
and  Christian  foundation  the  dignity  of  honest 
labor.  So  in  the  course  of  time,  throughout  all 
Europe,  the  system  of  craft  gilds  came  into  being. 
Based  on  the  personal  and  not  the  communal  own- 
ership of  the  means  of  production  by  the  workers, 
and  on  their  joint  control,  under  proper  public 
authority,   of  the  industries  in  which  they  were 


1 68  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

engaged  and  of  the  marketing  of  the  wares  which 
they  produced,  the  craft  gilds  were  in  their  origin 
the  ideal  democratic  solution  of  the  social  prob- 
lem of  their  age. 

But  more  than  this,  they  stand  out  in  all  the 
history  of  the  world  as  labor's  supreme  achieve- 
ment. Feudalism.,  curbed  by  the  Church  at  all 
times,  was  fast  outliving  its  period  of  real  social 
service.  The  burghers  in  the  small  towns  were 
seeking  for  industrial  freedom  from  their  feudal 
lords.  Servile  dues  were  gradually  cast  off  for 
a  single  payment  or  an  annual  tax,  and  the  right 
of  gild  courts,  in  place  of  trial  before  the  lord, 
and  of  gild-controlled  markets  was  effectively  won 
by  them.  Charters  containing  their  privileges 
were  granted  and  respected  by  the  King  or  lord 
to  whom  they  rendered  their  allegiance.  So,  one 
by  one,  their  economic  and  civic  rights  or  priv- 
ileges were  gained  and  maintained.  But  the 
struggle,  which  by  the  fourteenth  century  had 
practically  everywhere  been  successfully  ter- 
minated, was  not  merely  directed  against  oppres- 
sive feudal  lords,  but  also  against  a  new  form  of 
capitalism  that  threatened  to  submerge  both  labor 
and  the  craft  gilds. 

In  England,  as  we  have  seen,  no  real  struggle 
of  the  craft  gilds  occurred.  The  way  had  been 
prepared  for  them  by  the  old  merchant  or  town 
gild,  which  had  purchased  or  otherwise  obtained 
charter    privileges    and    protected    its    members 


world's  greatest  labor  movement  169 

against  the  incroachments  of  feudal  lords.  Sel- 
dom did  these  old  gilds  become  oppressive.  As 
the  democratic  institutions  of  their  day  they  had 
originally  embraced  almost  all  the  free  burghers  of 
their  respective  towns.  They  now  merely  disap- 
peared or  yielded  in  importance  to  the  new  craft 
gilds  that  had  been  formed  out  of  their  own  mem- 
bership. In  Scotland,  however,  bitter  struggles 
ensued  between  the  trade  unions  and  the  ancient 
gilds  as  late  as  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  cen- 
turies. The  Scotch  "  gildry  "  had  largely  devel- 
oped into  organizations  of  rich  merchants,  who 
continued  to  retain  to  a  great  extent  the  political 
control  of  the  burghal  councils  and  could  alone  be 
chosen  as  magistrates. 

As  early  as  the  twelfth  century  the  Leges  Burg- 
orum  enacted  that:  "No  dyer,  butcher  or  cob- 
bler may  be  admitted  to  the  Gild  Merchant  un- 
less he  abjures  the  practice  of  his  trade  by  his  own 
hands  and  conducts  it  only  by  those  serving  under 
him."  ^  In  the  thirteenth  century  fullers  and 
weavers  were  apparently  excluded,  but  not  the 
craftsmen  as  a  class.  The  craft  gilds,  as  such,  ac- 
cording to  Gross,  exercised  as  yet  no  political 
power  in  the  civic  community. 

It  was  upon  the  Continent,  however,  that  the 
real  struggle  of  these  first  trade  unions  in  Chris- 
tian times  took  place.     The  emancipation  in  ever 

3  Cosmo   Innes,   "  Ancient  Laws   and   Customs   of  the   Burghs 
of  Scotland,"  p.  46,  Gross. 


170  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

greater  numbers  of  the  serfs  upon  the  landed  es- 
tates and  their  crowding  into  the  cities,  together 
with  the  natural  growth  of  the  latter,  naturally 
resulted  in  a  comparatively  large  population  who 
lived  by  the  labor  of  their  hands  and  personally 
produced  the  wares  which  they  sold.  Many  of 
the  ancient  gilds,  which  perhaps  had  originated 
as  popular  democratic  associations,  now  grad- 
ually became  exclusive,  oligarchic  and  oppressive. 
Membership  was  often  retained  within  the  same 
families  and  extravagant  entrance  fees  were  de- 
manded to  exclude  new  applicants.  The  distinc- 
tion between  rich  and  poor  was  daily  more 
marked.  Not  only  did  the  former  obtain  con- 
trol of  gild  and  city,  but  they  soon  succeeded  in 
excluding  from  their  organization  all  who  lived  by 
handicraft.  Ordinances  were  enacted  denying  ad- 
mission to  all  who  had  not  relinquished  the  prac- 
tice of  their  trade  for  at  least  a  year  and  a  day. 
*'  Soiled  hands  "  and  "  blue  nails  "  were  specified 
in  various  gild  statutes  of  different  countries  as 
badges  of  toil  debarring  a  citizen  from  gild  com- 
munion.'* Yet  without  the  privileges  accorded  by 
gild  membership  it  was  impossible  for  him  to  com- 
pete with  the  richer  merchants  in  the  profitable 
exercise  of  his  chosen  trade.  He  would  there- 
fore be  obliged  to  labor  for  them.  Not  the  com- 
mon good,  but  their  own  profit  was  the  end  in 

*  Brentano,  Wild  a,  Herbert,  etc. 


world's  greatest  labor  movement     171 

view.  Such  was  the  menace  of  medieval  capi- 
talism. 

There  had  arisen  against  the  craftsman  a 
joint  conspiracy  of  the  nobility  of  the  land  and 
the  aristocracy  of  wealth.  Taking  account  of  al- 
tered circumstances  of  time  and  place,  conditions 
were  not  so  very  different  from  those  created  un- 
der the  post-Reformation  capitalism  of  modern 
times.  Just  as  the  chains  of  the  old  bondage  of 
villeinage  or  serfdom  were  being  broken  there 
arose  the  danger  that  new  ones  would  be  forged 
to  bind  the  freeman.  The  laborer  was  often  com- 
pelled by  necessity  to  place  himself  under  the 
protection  of  a  patrician,  to  render  him  service 
and  pay  him  taxes.  At  times  the  old  merchant 
families  and  the  nobility,  who  controlled  the  city, 
assumed  the  administration  for  themselves  and 
threw  the  burdens  upon  the  craftsmen,  who  were 
held  in  equal  disrespect  by  both. 

The  oppression  of  the  craftsmen  was  partic- 
ularly aggravated  at  Cologne,  where  the  Bishop 
sided  with  the  weavers  against  the  patrician  ele- 
ment. On  November  21,  1371,  the  execution  of 
thirty-three  weavers  took  place  in  this  city  and 
1,800  men,  according  to  Brentano,  were  exiled 
with  their  wives  and  children.^  The  fact  that  on 
this  occasion  the  churches  and  monasteries  were 

5  Lujo  Brentano,  "  History  and  Development  of  Gilds  and  the 
Origin  of  Trade  Unions,"  pp.  46,  47. 


172  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

ordered  searched  indicates  upon  what  side  the 
sympathy  of  the  clergy  and  religious  lay.  They 
were  seriously  suspected,  at  all  events,  of  harbor- 
ing the  craftsmen  from  the  violence  of  their  ene- 
mies. 

If  instances  of  ecclesiastics  of  religious  com- 
munities can  be  adduced  that  might  apparently 
place  the  Church  in  an  unfavorable  light,  all  doubt 
regarding  her  real  attitude  must  disappear  when 
we  consider  that  the  entire  gild  system,  which  the 
craftsmen  of  these  centuries  were  everywhere  con- 
structing, enjoyed  not  merely  the  sympathy,  but 
the  positive  support  of  the  clergy.  In  all  instances 
the  priest  was  the  chaplain  of  the  craft  gild,  a 
position  which  he  could  not  have  maintained, 
universally  and  invariably  as  he  did,  in  opposi- 
tion to  the  Church.  No  such  opposition  was  ever 
expressed  by  her.  On  the  contrary,  the  craft  gilds 
grew  from  suspected  institutions  into  power  and 
influence  under  the  eyes  of  the  priest-chaplain, 
with  the  tacit  or  open  sanction  of  bishops  and  ab- 
bots, and  beneath  the  fostering  care  of  the  Church 
herself.  They  were  as  truly  religious  institutions 
as  economic  and  social  organizations.  They 
sprang  up  out  of  the  soil  of  Catholicism  and  were 
lovingly  hedged  in  by  the  Church  against  all  ag- 
gression. The  error  of  historians  has  often  been 
to  mistake  the  individual  action  of  certain  inter- 
ested and  perhaps  highly  worldly  prelates  for  the 
policy    and    the    spirit    of    the    Church    herself. 


world's  greatest  labor  movement     173 

Nothing  could  be  more  unfair.  The  attitude  of 
the  people  towards  the  Church  and  of  the  Church 
towards  the  people  is  thus  briefly  expressed  by 
Dr.  Cutts,  a  non-Catholic  authority: 

One  reason  for  the  popularity  of  the  Medieval  Church  was 
that  it  has  always  been  the  champion  of  the  people,  and  the 
friend  of  the  poor.  In  politics  the  Church  was  always  on  the 
side  of  the  liberties  of  the  people  against  the  tyranny  of  the 
feudal  lords.^ 

If  now  we  remember  that  in  England  and  upon 
the  Continent  the  most  intimate  relation  had  ev- 
erywhere and  at  all  times  existed  between  gild- 
ship  and  citizenship,  that  chartering  a  gild  and 
chartering  a  city  were  often  identical,  and  that 
"  gildsmen  "  and  "  citizens,"  though  not  coexten- 
sive, are  often  practically  synonymous  in  royal  de- 
crees, we  can  understand  how  the  official  authoriza- 
tion of  the  craft  gilds  was  an  act  which  violently 
conflicted  with  the  interests  both  of  the  patrician 
classes  and  of  the  ruling  merchant  families.  It 
frustrated  completely  the  efforts  of  the  latter  to 
make  of  their  gilds  an  exclusive  oligarchy  of 
wealth  while  it  helped  to  break  the  power  of  the 
feudal  lords  and  strengthened  the  national  govern- 
ments. The  struggle  of  the  new  organizations 
was  for  equal  rights  and  equal  privileges.  New 
citizens  were  constantly  created  through  their  ef- 
forts, outnumbering  the  old  aristocracy.  The  for- 
mal recognition  of  the  craft  gilds  therefore  meant 

'Quoted,  London  Universe,  April  26,  1918. 


174  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

nothing  less  than  a  complete  readjustment  of  civic 
as  well  as  of  economic  conditions  throughout  Eu- 
rope. Their  victory  may  rightly  be  considered 
as  one  of  the  most  important  recorded  in  history. 
Yet  because  it  was  won  without  flourish  of  trum- 
pets and  crash  of  armies  and  storming  of  ancient 
citadels,  the  historian  has  often  failed  to  realize 
that  it  was  of  immeasurably  greater  importance 
and  profounder  human  interest  than  all  the  idle 
conquests  of  an  Alexander  or  Napoleon. 

The  Church  had  been  present  at  the  birth  of 
this  vast  movement.  She  had  captained  it  with 
her  priests  and  religious,  to  whom  the  honest 
craftsmen  looked  for  counsel  and  for  guidance, 
and  in  whom  he  confided  with  loving  reverence 
and  trust.  She  was  present  also  at  the  victory 
and  saw  that  it  was  tempered  with  charity  as  it 
was  animated  with  the  spirit  of  justice.  Rich 
and  poor  alike  are  her  children  and  she  has  equal 
care  of  both;  but  her  predilection,  like  that  of  her 
Divine  Master,  must  always  be  with  the  weak  and 
the  lowly  and  those  who  have  most  need  of  her 
protecting  arm. 


CHAPTER     XVIII 

TRUE  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 


B 


*'~f^ACK  to  the  gilds!"  is  the  cry  of  our 
age.  Many  who,  at  first  blush,  might 
repudiate  any  such  intention  are  in 
reality  working  eagerly  to  bring  about  their  own 
gild  ideals.  Nothing  therefore  is  of  greater  im- 
portance at  the  present  moment  than  a  clear  con- 
ception of  the  true  nature  of  the  medieval  craft 
gilds,  on  which,  with  proper  adaptations,  every 
modern  program  of  reconstruction  must  be  based. 
Aside  from  some  of  the  early  merchant  or  town 
gilds,  they  afford  us  the  only  instance  of  industrial 
democracy  throughout  the  whole  extent  of  the 
world's  history. 

It  would  be  folly  to  claim  for  them  an  abso- 
lute perfection.  Like  all  other  human  institu- 
tions, they  passed  through  various  stages  of  de- 
velopment. Our  reference  here  is  solely  to  the 
period  when  gildhood  was  in  flower.  A  great 
similarity  existed  among  the  trade  gilds  of  all  the 
various  Catholic  countries  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
They  everywhere  gradually  assumed  the  same 
forms  of  industrial  organization,  but  they  did  not 
everywhere  progress  with  the  same  rapidity  or 

175 


176  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

show  the  same  high  conceptions  of  industrial  de- 
mocracy. The  period  during  which  gildhood  may 
be  said  to  have  arrived  at  its  full  flowering  time 
began  in  some  countries  with  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, and  lasted  until  the  close  of  the  fifteenth. 
Craft  gilds  however  existed,  as  we  have  seen,  at 
an  even  earlier  period  and  continued  until  a  con- 
siderably later  date,  not  seldom  maintaining  them- 
selves in  a  more  or  less  prosperous  condition. 
Thus  at  Aries  there  was  a  College  of  Heads  of 
Crafts  in  the  twelfth  century,  but  only  in  the  thir- 
teenth century  were  the  gilds  fully  organized. 
The  legislation  then  drawn  up  remained  in  its 
essentials  until  I79i.-'^ 

"  Crafts  "  and  "  misteries,"  are  the  names  ordi- 
narily given  to  these  institutions  by  the  English 
craftsmen.  The  latter  name  is  derived  from  the 
Latin  minis terium,  meaning  a  service  or  office  in 
which  any  one  is  engaged.  The  two  words  are 
not  infrequently  used  together,  so  that  we  read  of 
the  founding  of  a  "  craft  and  mistery."  The 
word  '*  gild  "  itself  continued  in  use  from  the 
earliest  days,  but  is  general  in  its  application  and 
applies  to  organizations  of  every  kind.  The 
French  name  corresponding  to  our  "  craft  gild  "  is 
metier,  the  Italian  arte  and  the  German  Zunft. 

The  craft  gilds  were  not  established  for  the 
sake   of  creating   an   exclusive  trade   monopoly. 

^  Eticnne  Martin  Saint-Leon,  *  Histoire  Des  Corporations  de 
Metiers,"  pp.  62,  63. 


TRUE    INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACY  1 77 

Every  craftsman  was  welcomed,  and  even  urged 
to  join  his  own  craft  gild.  Their  purpose  was  to 
include  within  each  association  all  the  approved 
workmen  employed  in  the  same  trade  within  the 
same  town.  The  number  of  these  gilds  increased 
with  the  constantly  increasing  specialization  of 
the  crafts  themselves,  until  finally  almost  every 
industry  was  divided  into  a  variety  of  gilds. 
There  was  a  period  when  this  separation  became 
excessive,  but  we  are  speaking  of  the  craft  gilds 
at  their  perfection.  Their  prime  object  was  the 
regulation  of  trading  conditions  within  their  own 
locality.  Hence  the  necessity  of  bringing  into  the 
gild  or  including  under  its  economic  control  every 
townsman  who  desired  to  engage  in  any  organ- 
ized craft.  Instances  were  not  wanting  where 
craft  gilds,  like  our  modern  federations  of  labor, 
extended  over  entire  districts.  Thus  the  great 
Silesian  Tailors'  Gild  embraced  in  its  jurisdiction 
no  fewer  than  twenty-five  towns. ^  Both  the  cut- 
lers' and  the  builders'  gilds  of  Germany  were  fed- 
eralized into  four  central  organizations.^ 

Trade  monopoly,  however,  was  sought,  not  for 
its  own  sake  but  as  the  sole  condition  under  which 
the  gild  could  effectively  exercise  the  management 
and  supervision  of  its  own  craft.  In  this  way 
only  was  it  possible  to  legislate  regarding  the  price 
of  raw  material  as  well  as  of  the  finished  product; 

2  Berlepsch,  II,  p.  230. 

'  Brentano,  "  History  and  Development  of  Gilds,"  pp.  70,  71. 


178  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

to  determine  the  maximum  hours  of  work,  the 
number  of  apprentices  and  journeymen  that  might 
be  engaged  by  a  single  master,  the  years  of  ap- 
prenticeship and  the  wages  of  assistants;  to  in- 
spect in  the  interest  of  the  consumer  the  quan- 
tity, measure  or  weight  of  the  product  offered  for 
sale ;  to  prevent,  in  fine,  undue  competition,  exces- 
sive wealth  or  unnecessary  poverty.  In  this  way 
only  could  the  highest  standards  of  workmanship 
and  of  morality  be  secured.  No  one  might  be 
admitted  into  a  craft  gild  who  had  not  given  due 
evidence  of  technical  skill  or  whose  fair  name  was 
sullied  in  any  respect.  As  W.  Cunningham 
rightly  says  upon  this  point : 

The  purpose  of  these  gilds  was  the  regulation  of  work  in  such 
fashion  that  the  public  might  be  well  served  and  that  the  trade 
might  therefore  flourish.  .  .  .  The  efltort  was  to  secure  satis- 
factory conditions  for  production  —  skilled  workers  and  honest 
materials  —  and  to  ensure  a  price  which  should  be  "reason- 
able "  to  receive  and  therefore  reasonable  to  pay  for  such  ware 
thus  made* 

The  fact  that  there  might  exist,  under  such  a 
system,  a  number  of  "  half-taught  helpers  and 
unskilled  laborers,"  not  included  in  the  member- 
ship of  any  of  the  craft  gilds,  does  not  militate 
against  the  purely  democratic  nature  of  these  as- 
sociations. True  democracy,  industrial  as  well  as 
political,  is  not  a  blind  leveling  process,  but  a 
condition  of  society  in  which  the  rights  of  all  are 

* "  The  Growth  of  English  Industry  and  Commerce  during 
the  Early  and  Middle  Ages,"  I,  p.  342. 


TRUE    INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACY  1 79 

religiously  respected,  and  ample  opportunities  for 
economic  self-development  are  offered.  The 
chimerical  conception  of  a  society  which  would 
obliterate  all  distinctions  is  not  to  be  classed  as 
an  ideal  of  democracy  but  as  a  mad  Utopia.  It  is 
built  up  neither  on  the  Gospel  of  Christ  nor  on  the 
nature  of  man.  The  gilds  at  their  perfection 
never  overlooked  the  needs  and  rights  of  all  the 
classes  comprised  within  the  commonwealth. 
They  knew  of  no  class-warfare  such  as  was  later 
to  arise.  The  master  workman  had  attained  his 
full  political  and  economic  liberty  and  did  not 
envy  those  who  might  be  above  him  in  legal  or 
spiritual  authority,  nor  did  he  forget  the  rights 
of  those  who,  in  the  same  religious  spirit,  were 
duly  subject  to  him  in  his  own  little  workshop. 
In  this  happy  age,  as  Professor  Seligman  says: 

A  conflict  of  interests  was  unknown.  The  journeyman  always 
looked  forward  to  the  period  when  he  would  be  admitted  to  the 
freedom  of  the  trade.  This  was  as  a  rule  not  difficult  for  an 
expert  workman  to  attain.  No  insuperable  obstacle  was  thrown 
in  his  path.  In  fact  there  was  no  superabundance  of  skilled 
labor  at  this  time.  It  was  a  period  of  supremacy  of  labor  over 
capital,  and  the  master  worked  beside  the  artisan.'* 

The  exclusiveness  of  the  gilds  was  not  there- 
fore of  the  nature  of  a  modern  monopoly,  since 
all  who  would  properly  qualify  themselves,  as 
true  men  and  true  workers,  might  be  admitted. 
When  in  later  years  serious  economic  restrictions 

5  G.  R.  A,  Seligman,  "  Ten  Chapters  on  the  Medieval  Guilds 
of  England"   (1887). 


l8o  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

were  introduced,  it  was  merely  a  sign  that  the 
craft  gilds,  like  many  of  the  Continental  merchant 
gilds  before  them,  had  arrived  at  the  period  of 
their  decline.  That  abuses  might  exist  at  any 
period  is  sufficiently  obvious.  They  can  nowhere 
be  eliminated.  Thus  we  read  of  complaints 
brought  as  early  as  132 1  against  the  London 
weavers  that  they  were  misusing  their  power  by 
demanding  excessive  entrance  fees  for  admission 
to  their  gild  and  so  unduly  limiting  the  number 
of  licensed  workmen.*  In  general,  however, 
a  small  entrance  fee  only  was  exacted.  Special 
taxes  were  levied  as  occasion  arose.  Regular  dues 
were  demanded  at  a  later  period  only.  But  dona- 
tions were  frequent,  bequests  were  constantly 
made,  and  the  gilds  were  always  financially  well 
supplied. 

The  trade  monopoly,  legally  exercised  by  the 
craft  gilds,  was  always  a  great  advantage  to  the 
town  itself.  Not  seldom  the  organization  of  a 
gild  was  insisted  upon  by  the  municipal  authori- 
ties in  order  to  secure  the  proper  regulation  of 
production  and  sale.  The  reputation,  and  conse- 
quently the  prosperity  of  a  town,  depended  upon 
the  quality  of  its  wares.  To  maintain  this  at  its 
highest  mark  the  vigilance  of  a  thoroughly  organ- 
ized craft  gild  was  indispensable.  Besides,  it 
saved  all  the  civic  expenses  that  would  else  be  in- 

*W.  J.  Ashley,  "An  Introduction  to  English  Economic  His- 
tory and  Theory,"  II,  p.  75. 


TRUE  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY     l8l 

curred  for  the  citizens  by  a  large  corps  of  munici- 
pal and  police  officials.  As  a  pertinent  example 
we  may  instance  the  reasons  given  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Bristol  gild,  probably  in  1392, 
which  was  known  as  "  The  Craft  of  St.  John  the 
Baptist  and  the  Craft  of  Tailors." 

The  craft  of  tailors  in  this  honorable  town,  we 
are  informed  in  its  ordinances,  had  been  and  was 
"  greatly  slandered  in  many  parts  of  the  realm." 
The  reason  given  is  that  any  person  might  prac- 
tise the  craft  at  that  time,  though  "  not  skilled  in 
the  art  of  clothing,  or  not  belonging  to  the  busi- 
ness, or  one  who  steals  the  cloth  entrusted  to  him, 
to  the  great  slander  of  the  town  and  craft,  and 
to  the  danger  of  the  people  in  default  that  good 
ordinance  is  not  made  in  this  town."  It  is  there- 
fore ordained  that  as  in  London,  in  York  and  in 
other  towns  of  the  realm,  "  No  man  of  the  craft 
of  tailors  shall  be  received  into  the  franchise  or 
freedom  of  this  craft  to  cut  any  cloth,  unless  he 
be  first  presented  by  the  master  and  wardens  of 
the  craft  to  the  mayor  of  this  town,  as  an  able  and 
skilful  person  in  his  craft."  If  therefore  it  could 
be  shown  that  he  was  of  good  condition,  good 
name  and  full  perfect  in  his  trade,  he  was  to  be 
received  into  the  gild.  All  further  responsibility 
concerning  malpractice  of  any  kind  in  the  tailor- 
ing business  of  that  town  was  thenceforth  taken 
by  the  gild. 

To  carry  into  effect  the  many  craft  rules  regard- 


1 82  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

ing  quantity  and  quality  of  work,  prices 
and  hours,  purchase,  sharing  and  sale,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  an  extensive  craft  jurisdiction  was  re- 
quired. The  amount  of  civic  authority  and  execu- 
tive power  thus  delegated  to  the  craft  officials 
varied  largely  in  different  countries  and  at  differ- 
ent times.  The  gilds  had  their  own  courts  in 
which  members  were  tried  for  delinquencies  and 
punished  with  fines.  It  is  not  improbable  that 
in  some  instances  the  gild  jurisdiction  was  almost 
absolute  within  its  own  province.  Thus  the  Lon- 
don weavers  could  insist  upon  trial  before  their 
own  court  rather  than  before  the  civil  authorities. 
Or  the  process  was  reversed  and  the  gildsman  was 
directly  tried  before  his  own  gild  court  for  the 
violation  of  gild  statutes,  but  remained  at  liberty 
to  demand  a  trial  before  the  mayor.  Thus  the 
regulation  of  an  English  cutlers'  gild,  drawn  up 
in  1344,  reads:  "As  to  all  those  of  the  said 
trade  who  do  not  wish  to  be  tried  by  the  wardens 
of  the  trade  for  the  time  being,  the  names  of 
such  shall  be  presented  to  the  mayor  and  alder- 
men, and  by  them  shall  be  judged."  '^ 

Gild  courts  were  held  at  regular  intervals,  pre- 
sided over  by  gild  officials.  A  gild  sergeant  was 
sent  to  summon  offenders.  Thus,  unlike  many  of 
our  modern  laws  dealing  with  the  interests  of  in- 
dustry or  commerce,  all  the  gild  regulations  re- 
garding   production,    purchase    and    sale    were 

^  Riley,  "  Memorials  of  London,"  p.  218. 


TRUE    INDUSTRIAL    DEMOCRACY  1 83 

Strictly  carried  out  with  neither  the  delay  nor  the 
expense  of  our  modern  systems.  The  penalties 
of  money  imposed  were  applied  to  the  needs  of 
the  association  or  devoted  to  the  purchase  of 
wax  for  candles  which  every  gild  burned  at  its 
shrines  or  in  its  churches.  Confiscation  of  arti- 
cles illegally  purchased  or  produced  was  also 
within  the  gild  jurisdiction.  Most  serious  of  all 
punishments,  however,  was  that  which  expelled  a 
member  from  the  gild,  whether  for  immorality  or 
obdurate  violation  of  laws,  and  so  excluded  him 
from  the  right  to  practise  his  craft  in  the  town 
as  a  master  craftsman.  The  statutes  in  conform- 
ity with  which  these  sentences  were  passed  had 
usually  been  drawn  up  by  the  craftsmen  them- 
selves and  received  the  municipal  sanction  or  the 
seal  of  some  higher  authority.  They  thus  right- 
fully became  the  law  of  the  city  for  which  the  gild 
was  established  and  contributed  their  own  impor- 
tant share  towards  promoting  the  common  good 
of  all  the  inhabitants.  They  were  drawn  up  with 
no  selfish  hand,  but  in  a  spirit  of  fair  play  for 
all  and  thus  effectively  prevented  both  profiteer- 
ing and  special  privilege,  excessive  wages  or  un- 
just pay,  high  prices  or  inadequate  returns,  careless 
labor  and  over-work.  How  this  was  brought 
about  we  shall  consider  in  another  chapter. 

The  spirit  of  Christian  democracy  which  per- 
meated many  of  these  early  organizations  is  per- 
haps best  exemplified  by  the  custom  introduced  in 


184  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

various  French  gilds  of  making  their  annual 
change  of  craft  officials  during  the  chanting  of 
the  Magnificat  at  the  Vespers.  "  In  the  middle 
of  the  verse,  '  He  hath  set  down  the  mighty  from 
their  seat,'  the  organ  and  the  singing  ceased  while 
the  past  warden  left  his  place  and  delivered  up 
the  insignia  of  his  office.  At  the  conclusion  of  the 
verse,  '  He  hath  exalted  the  humble,'  the  new 
warden  was  conducted  to  his  seat."  ^  While  the 
craft  gilds  continued  in  this  spirit  there  could  be 
no  danger  for  the  safety  of  the  Industrial  democ- 
racy confided  to  such  leaders. 

The  two  following  chapters  shall  present  under 
still  other  aspects  this  "  True  Industrial  Democ- 
racy "  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

8 Abbot  Snow,  O.  S.  B.,  "The  Church  and  Labor,"  p.  29. 


CHAPTER     XIX 

LIVE  AND  LET  LIVE 

MDENYS-COCHIN,  Deputy  from 
Paris,  relates  in  the  Journal  Offi- 
•  ciel,^  how  when  he  was  a  member  of 
the  Board  of  Aldermen  two  of  his  associates  in 
office  were  Socialist  workingmen,  rather  advanced 
in  years.  One  of  them  he  describes  as  of  un- 
usual refinement  and  learning,  un  vieillard  char- 
mant.  Arguing  with  him  one  day  the  future  Dep- 
uty said:  "You  hold  that  the  working  class  is 
not  fairly  treated  now-a-days.  At  what  period 
of  history,  in  your  opinion,  was  the  laborer  best 
provided  for  and  had  the  least  reason  for  com- 
plaint? "  The  Socialist  paused  for  a  moment  and 
then  said:  "  Now  I  know  that  I'll  surprise  you, 
but  it  seems  to  me  it  was  at  the  end  of  the  reign 
of  St.  Louis."  He  had  evidently  read  to  advant- 
age the  famous  "  Livre  des  Metiers."  - 

The  master  craftsman  of  the  Middle  Ages  was 
capitalist,  laborer,  merchant  and  entrepreneur  in 
one.     He  was  none  of  these  exclusively,  because 

1  January  19,  1910. 

2  fitienne  Boileau,  Prevote  of  Paris  in  1258.  The  first  part  of 
his  book  is  divided  into  a  hundred  different  titles,  each  dealing 
with  a  gild,  corporation. 

185 


I  86  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

he  embraced  the  functions  of  them  all.  He  him- 
self bought  the  raw  material  of  his  trade,  unless 
purchased  for  him  by  the  customer  whose  orders 
he  fulfilled,  made  his  own  wares  and  personally 
sold  them  in  his  shop  or  at  the  fair.  The  gild 
did  not  permit  any  unnecessary  intrusion  of  a 
middleman,  and  so  successfully  prevented  those 
crying  inequalities  that  were  to  arise  in  later  days. 
All  were  assured  of  a  reasonable  competence 
and  no  one  could  shirk  the  ordinance  of  labor. 
But  labor  itself  was  then  held  in  honor  and  not 
considered  an  indignity  as  in  the  days  of  ancient 
or  of  modern  paganism. 

Idleness  was  a  vice  not  tolerated  in  a  gildsman. 
No  craft  master  might  ever  work  by  proxy. 
Each  one,  except  in  case  of  sickness,  was  obliged 
to  manage  his  own  small  enterprise  and  lead  in 
the  labor  of  the  day.  Widows  only  might  em- 
ploy a  substitute.  The  number  of  apprentices  and 
assistants  whom  a  single  master  might  engage 
was  strictly  limited.  This  was  done  in  the  in- 
terest of  the  apprentices,  who  else  could  not  re- 
ceive a  proper  education;  in  the  interest  of  the 
journeymen,  who  else  would  compete  with  child 
labor;  and  in  the  interest  of  the  master  craftsman 
whose  shop,  however  little,  might  fairly  rival 
that  of  the  wealthiest  burgher.  If  it  is  true  that 
production  was  somewhat  reduced  by  these  meth- 
ods, it  is  certainly  true  to  an  even  far  greater  ex- 
tent that  the  general  happiness  and  the  common 


LIVE    AND   LET    LIVE  I87 

welfare,  temporal  and  spiritual,  were  greatly  in- 
creased. To  promote  this  end  is  after  all  the  ob- 
ject of  society. 

For  this  same  reason  no  man  might  engage  in 
more  than  a  single  trade.  In  the  *'  Secular  Re- 
formation "  of  Emperor  Sigismund,  1434,  the 
following  law  is  enacted: 

The  crafts  have  been  devised  for  this  purpose,  that  every- 
body by  them  should  earn  his  daily  bread,  and  nobody  should 
interfere  with  the  craft  of  another  By  this  the  world  gets  rid 
of  its  misery,  and  every  one  may  find  his  livelihood.  If  there 
be  one  who  is  a  wineman,  he  shall  have  to  do  with  this  trade, 
and  shall  not  practise  another  thing  besides.  The  same  shall 
hold  if  he  is  a  bread-baker  and  the  like,  no  craft  excepted. 
And  it  is  to  be  prevented  on  Imperial  command,  and  to  be  fined 
with  forty  marks  of  gold,  where  it  is  heard  that  the  Imperial 
towns  do  not  attend  to  this,  that  so  nobody  of  any  trade  what- 
ever may  interfere  with  the  craft  of  another.^ 

Thus  the  gild  regulation  received  the  support 
of  the  Crown.  Usually  however  the  gildsmen 
themselves  saw  to  the  fulfilmerft  of  their  own 
statutes,  at  least  in  the  days  to  which  our  observa- 
tions are  confined,  when  gildhood  was  at  its  per- 
fection. In  pursuance  of  the  same  gild  princi- 
ple, that  "  every  one  shall  have  the  same  means  of 
subsistence,"  and  to  procure  especially  the  "  bet- 
ter relief  and  comodytie  of  the  poorer  sorte,"  reg- 
ulations were  carefully  drawn  up  regarding  the 
purchase  of  raw  materials.     The  producer  was 

3  Goldasti,  "  Constitutiones  Imperiales,"  IV,  p.  189.  Brentano, 
p.  60. 


1 88  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

not  to  begin  the  day  with  the  knowledge  that  he 
was  placed  at  any  disadvantage  in  competing  with 
a  wealthier  neighbor.  In  some  of  the  German 
crafts  the  material  needed  for  production  was 
bought  for  the  entire  fellowship  by  gild  members 
appointed  for  this  office.  Each  gildsman  could 
then  supply  himself,  at  a  standard  price,  with  the 
needed  quantity  of  his  material,  and  no  one  could 
exceed  his  allowance. 

If  special  opportunities  of  a  bargain  were  of- 
fered to  any  individual  member  he  was  obliged, 
according  to  gild  statutes,  to  give  others  a  portion 
of  his  purchase,  at  the  same  rate,  if  so  they  de- 
sired it.  Such,  too,  had  been  the  custom  in  the 
early  English  merchant  gilds.  To  make  this  ef- 
fective a  special  ordinance  is  even  found  forbid- 
ding him  to  keep  his  purchase  secret.  Thus  the 
poorest  gildsman  could  obtain  the  material  for  his 
craft  at  the  same  price  and  under  the  same  ad- 
vantages as  the  richest.  On  this  principle,  too, 
common  town  purchases  were  frequently  made 
and  even  common  mills  erected  where  all  the 
wheat  must  be  ground,  that  "  thus  the  advantage 
of  the  poorer  sort  might  be  secured."  In  other 
instances  a  trade  in  cattle  and  corn  was  carried 
on  by  the  town  authorities.  There  are  many  who 
in  our  own  day  would  denounce  such  actions  as 
Socialistic,  although  no  one  had  heard  in  those 
days  of  "  Das  Capital."  Capitalism  itself  did  not 
exist  on  which  Marx  based  his  ponderous  vol- 


LIVE    AND   LET    LIVE  1 89 

umes.  In  the  same  manner  cooperative  selling, 
as  in  the  case  of  the  German  potters,  must  not  be 
considered  a  modern  innovation. 

As  for  the  working  time,  a  six-hour  day  was 
never  dreamed  of  by  these  old  gildsmen,  unless  it 
might  possibly  have  been  the  case  in  some  very 
hazardous  or  exhausting  occupation.  The  eight- 
hour  day  was  not  unknown.  Ordinarily,  how- 
ever, men  worked  without  haste,  and  with  proper 
intervals  for  rest  and  refection,  so  long  as  the 
daylight  lasted,  content  and  happy  in  their  oc- 
cupation. There  is  no  instance  on  record  of  any 
protest,  on  the  part  of  journeymen  or  craftsmen, 
against  the  length  of  the  working-day,  though 
these  old  gildsmen  were  not  slow  to  express  their 
mind  on  subjects  of  gild  interest.  Neither,  how- 
ever, was  any  one  permitted  to  exceed  the  definite 
hours  set  respectively  for  winter  and  for  sum- 
mer work.  The  object  was  again  to  prevent  un- 
necessary competition  and  to  preserve  unimpaired 
the  full  dignity  of  man. 

The  usual  hours  of  labor  may  at  first  sight 
appear  long  to  us,  in  comparison  with  modern 
standards.  Yet  we  may  be  surprised  to  learn 
that  one  of  the  objections  brought  against  the 
Middle  Ages  is  the  accusation  that  there  were 
then  too  few  working  hours  in  the  year.  It  is  suf- 
ficient to  answer  that  all  the  necessary  work  was 
well  and  duly  done. 

The  Sundays  were  sacred  to  religion,  and  all 


190  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

the  many  Holy  Days  then  enjoined  by  the  Church 
were  strictly  enforced  by  the  gild  authorities.  At 
six  o'clock  on  Saturdays  all  industry  ceased.  In 
many  gilds  work  ended  with  the  first  Vespers,  at 
noon.  In  some  instances  this  rule  was  observed 
not  merely  on  Saturdays  but  also  on  the  Vigils  of 
the  Feasts,  which  then  were  many  in  number. 
Men  might  so  fittingly  prepare  themselves  for  the 
celebration  of  the  high  festivals  of  that  Faith 
which  was  dearer  far  than  life  to  those  ancient 
gildsmen.  To  it  they  owed  the  privileges  they 
possessed  and  all  the  honor  and  the  dignity  with 
which  labor  was  encompassed.  The  master  gilds- 
man  needed  not  to  envy  King  or  noble.  Religion 
gave  to  him  his  accolade,  and  every  apprentice 
might  hope  in  his  good  day  to  be  a  master.  Writ- 
ing of  Chartres  Cathedral,  where  kings  and  dukes 
and  barons  are  commemorated  among  the  bene- 
factors, Ouin-Lacroix  adds  :  "  Des  corporations 
de  simples  artisans  y  ont  mele  avec  orgueil  les  em- 
blemes  de  leur  profession.''  *  The  tools  of  the 
humblest  laborers  were  not  considered  unworthy  to 
be  emblazoned  with  crown  or  coronet  on  those 
glorious  stained-glass  windows  of  the  thirteenth 
century. 

The  Socialist  Paul  Lafargue  declared  unchal- 
lenged before  la  Cour  d' assises  du  Nord:  "  I 
say  and  I  maintain,  that  under  the  old  regime,  the 

•*  Histoire  des  Anciennes  Corporations  d'Arts  et  Metiers  et  des 
Confreries  Religieuses  de  la  Capitate  de  La  Normandie,  pp.  6,  7. 


LIVE    AND   LET    LIVE  I9I 

laborer  was  in  a  better  position  than  to-day.  The 
Church  each  year  assured  him  fifty-two  Sundays 
and  thirty-eight  holidays,  a  total  of  ninety  days  of 
rest."  ^ 

Whatever  the  actual  number  of  Holy  Days  may 
really  have  been,  the  Church  did  far  more  than 
this  for  the  workingman.  She  not  only  assured 
him  the  necessary  rest  and  relaxation,  but  by  the 
attendance  at  Holy  Mass  and  other  religious  serv- 
ices kept  him  constantly  in  touch  with  the  great 
spiritual  realities  of  life  and  thus  prevented  that 
degradation  of  labor  which  is  sure  to  follow  in 
every  pagan  society.  It  was  not  mere  idleness, 
but  a  sanctified  day  of  rest  that  she  procured  for 
the  humblest  apprentice  as  well  as  for  the  master 
craftsman,  and  thus  preserved  in  both  all  that  is 
finest,  noblest  and  highest  in  man.  It  is  this  that 
the  false  modern  radicalism  forgets  in  its  unrea- 
sonable demands. 

The  life  of  the  Middle  Ages,  in  their  perfection, 
was  a  life  of  labor,  of  charity  and  of  religion. 
But  everywhere  and  throughout,  it  was  a  life  of 
joy.  In  the  beauty  of  so  much  of  the  most  com- 
mon workmanship  of  those  days  we  behold  the  de- 
light of  the  workman  in  his  craft.  But  above  all 
it  is  plain  in  the  sacred  monuments  that  he  has 
left  us  of  his  skill  and  faith.  It  is  written  in  every 
arch  and  spandrel,  in  every  pinnacle  and  turret, 
in  the  carven  tracery  and  richly  varied  harmonies 

•*  Spoken  after  I'affaire  de  Fourmies. 


192  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

of  light  and  shade,  in  the  fantastic  gargoyles  and 
grotesques  no  less  than  in  the  reverently  sculp- 
tured saints  and  angels  of  the  ancient  minsters, 
where  every  artisan  was  gifted  with  an  artist's 
soul  and  every  artist  was  an  artisan.  The  same 
was  true  of  the  very  homes  and  shops  of  those 
ancient  craftsmen.  Though  we  read  much  in  our 
day  of  the  narrow  medieval  streets,  and  the  over- 
hanging stories  of  their  houses,  crowded  together 
within  the  high  town  walls,  that  naturally  could 
not  expand  with  every  growth  of  the  community, 
yet  the  richness  of  medieval  life  surpassed  all  that 
modern  science  has  devised.  Cities  were  then  the 
centers  of  Christian  culture,  consisting  of  real 
homes,  and  filled  with  true  men  and  women  who 
knew  that  there  were  higher  things  in  life  than 
frantic  production  and  mad  greed  for  gain.  This 
truth  is  strongly  expressed  in  the  work  of  two  re- 
cent authorities  upon  the  subject,  J.  L.  Hammond 
and  Barbara  Hammond,  who  like  Ruskin  have 
penetrated  beneath  the  surface  of  that  medieval 
culture,  so  rich,  so  varied,  so  warm  with  life  and 
love  and  faith: 

The  old  English  towns  were  often  over-crowded,  insanitary, 
honey-combed  with  alleys  and  courts  that  never  saw  the  sun  or 
breathed  the  air,  but  the  fancy,  and  emotion,  and  the  skill  and 
craftsmanship  of  different  ages  had  made  them  beautiful  and 
interesting.  They  were  the  home  of  a  race,  with  all  the  tradi- 
tions and  pieties  and  heirlooms  of  a  home.  It  was  of  immense 
moment  to  the  citizens  of  such  towns  whether  the  towns  were 
beautiful,    well-governed,    and    administered    with    justice    and 


LIVE    AND   LET    LIVE  1 93 

magnanimity:  this  mattered  much  more  to  them  than  half  the 
wars  that  have  filled  so  disproportionate  a  page  in  the  writings 
of  history.* 

Comparing  the  new  Industrial  districts  of  the 
age  of  capitalism  with  the  towns  of  the  medieval 
gildsmen,  the  same  writers  say  of  the  former: 

They  were  not  so  much  towns  as  barracks:  not  the  refuge  of 
a  civilization  but  the  barracks  of  an  industry.  This  character 
was  stamped  on  their  form  and  life  and  government.  The 
medieval  town  had  reflected  the  minds  of  centuries  and  the 
subtle  associations  of  a  living  society  with  a  history;  these  towns 
reflected  the  violent  enterprise  of  an  hour,  the  single  passion  that 
had  thrown  street  on  street  in  a  frantic  monotony  of  disorder. 
Nobody  could  read  in  these  shapeless  improvisations  what 
Ruskin  called  "  the  manly  language  of  a  people  inspired  by 
resolute  and  common  purpose,"  for  they  represented  nothing 
but  the  avarice  of  the  jerry-builder  catering  to  the  avarice  of 
the  capitalist.'' 

The  Coal  Commission  of  England  in  19 19 
showed  that  in  one  town  alone  27,000  out  of  38,- 
000  people  were  living  In  one  or  two-room  houses; 
in  another,  twenty-eight  per  cent  of  the  popula- 
tion was  living  In  houses  of  one  room  only.  In 
Lanarkshire,  out  of  188,000  children  born,  22,000 
died  before  they  reached  the  age  of  one  year.* 
But  what  is  all  this  compared  to  the  slums  of  mod- 
ern cities  as  Francis  Thompson  knew  and  pic- 
tured them  in  terrible  words,  or  Tennyson  de- 
scribed them  in  the  England  of  his  day : 

«  The  Town  Laborer,"  p.  37. 

7  Ibid. 

8  The  London  Universe,  March  21,  1919. 


194  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

There  among  the  glooming  alleys  Progress  halts  on  palsied  feet, 
Crime   and  hunger  cast  our  maidens  by  the  thousands  on  the 

street. 
There  the  master  scrimps  his  haggard  sempstress  of  her  daily 

bread, 
There  a  single  sordid  attic  holds  the  living  and  the  dead. 

It  is  with  a  sense  of  relief,  therefore,  that  we 
turn  back  to  those  earlier  and  better  days,  and 
with  Lowell  dare  to  say :  "  I  am  not  ashamed  to 
confess  a  singular  sympathy  with  the  Middle 
Ages."  ®  But  to  understand  best  the  joy  of  life 
that  filled  them,  we  must  turn  to  the  craft  gilds  of 
those  days:  their  gild-halls  and  their  richly  sculp- 
tured churches;  their  banners,  pageants  and  plays; 
their  feasts  and  banquets  and  rejoicings.  No  gild 
was  ever  without  its  festal  gatherings  when  the 
hardy  craftsmen  sat  about  the  common  board,  and 
cheer  and  merriment  were  universal.  There  is 
no  gloom  in  the  Catholic  religion.  It  admits  of 
the  highest  abnegation,  but  it  never  seeks  to  crush 
in  others  the  life  of  innocent  pleasure.  Puritan- 
ism and  rigorism  became  possible  through  the  Re- 
formation only.  Asceticism  itself  was  not  dour- 
ness,  but  joy  of  spirit.  The  cup  of  life  was  never 
so  full  to  overflowing,  for  the  greatest  and  the 
least,  as  in  those  days  when  gildhood  was  in 
flower. 

•  "  A  Few  Bits  of  Roman  Mosaic" 


CHAPTER     XX 

THE  GOLDEN  RULE  APPLIED 

THE  salient  characteristic  of  the  gild  ideal 
was  its  regard  for  the  interests  of  the 
public.  However  the  craftsman  might 
personally  fail,  the  statutes  of  his  gild  never  over- 
looked the  common  good.  Here  precisely  we  can 
discover  by  contrast  the  great  and  fundamental 
defects  of  our  modern  organizations  of  labor  and 
capital.  Social  obligations  were  never  so  deeply 
impressed  on  the  minds  of  men  as  in  the  days 
when  religion  laid  the  economic  basis  for  the  med- 
ieval gilds. 

Of  first  importance  was  the  quality  of  the  work. 
A  false  conception  of  class  loyalty  is  often  likely 
to  protect  the  modern  member  of  an  employers'  or 
workmen's  association  who  fails  in  this  or  any 
other  regard.  Even  where  flagrant  offenses  have 
been  committed,  such  unions  in  countless  instances 
have  sought  to  shield  their  members  from  the 
just  penalties  to  be  inflicted.  At  times  a  patent 
conspiracy  exists  to  promote  the  class  interest  at 
the  expense  of  the  public  welfare.  The  medieval 
gild  statutes,  at  their  perfection,  never  dissociated 
these  two,  and  the  common  welfare  was  in  fact  the 

195 


196  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

iirst  to  be  regarded.  Not  in  vain  had  the  Church 
imbued  the  minds  of  these  sturdy  gildsmen  with 
the  principles  of  Catholic  morahty  and  her  own 
sane  interpretation  of  the  Gospel  law  of  social 
justice  and  of  charity.  Hence  not  only  was  care- 
ful investigation  made  by  every  gild  into  the 
quality  of  the  goods  produced  by  its  own  mem- 
bers, but  even  tools,  according  to  one  gild  regula- 
tion, could  not  be  used  "  unless  the  same  were 
testified  to  be  good  and  honest."  Our  modern 
pure  food  laws  were  anticipated  and  carried  to  a 
degree  of  perfection  unknown  to  us.  Night  work, 
too,  was  prohibited  for  the  precise  reason  that 
proper  inspection  was  then  impossible,  frauds 
might  readily  be  perpetrated  and  high  class  work 
could  not  be  produced  by  inadequate  light. 

The  purchaser  could  always  appeal  to  the  gild 
for  satisfaction  if  any  article  had  been  imper- 
fectly made,  and  he  might  probably  find  the  gild 
officials  even  more  eager  than  he  to  discover  and 
right  the  wrong.  Since  the  raw  material  of  the 
tradesman  was  in  many  instances  furnished  by  the 
consumer,  special  safeguards  were  provided  to  as- 
sure him  that  his  goods  would  not  be  spoiled  or 
wasted.  Thus  the  Bristol  craft  of  tailors  or- 
dained that  the  work  must  be  performed  deftly 
and  properly  or  the  gild  itself  would  see  that  the 
price  paid  for  the  cloth  of  a  misfit  garment  was 
refunded  to  the  customer,  the  garment  remaining 
with  the  tailor.     "  So,"  the  gild  quaintly  incul- 


THE   GOLDEN   RULE   APPLIED  1 97 

cates  its  lesson,  "  every  tailor  shall  be  advised  to 
cut  well  and  sufficiently  the  cloth  that  is  unto  him 
delivered  to  be  cut." 

Similarly  all  frauds  in  weight,  width,  measure 
or  any  established  standard  of  quantity  were 
promptly  adjudged  by  the  gild  itself  or  brought  by 
it  to  the  notice  of  the  municipal  authorities.  An 
instance  of  the  latter  kind  is  found  in  the  statutes 
of  the  London  bracemakers,  known  as  "  brae- 
lers,"  drawn  up  in  1355:  "  If  any  one  shall  be 
found  making  false  work,  let  the  same  work  be 
brought  before  the  mayor  and  aldermen,  and  be- 
fore them  let  it  be  adjudged  upon  as  being  false 
or  forfeited;  and  let  such  person  go  bodily  to 
prison."  ^  It  is  to  be  noted  that  articles  defective 
in  measure  or  weight  were  then  known  as  "  false." 
Of  the  gild  courts  themselves  enough  has  already 
been  said  in  another  chapter.  The  extent  of  their 
power  naturally  varied  in  different  towns.  But 
all  weights  and  measures  were  carefully  tested, 
particularly  at  the  great  fairs  at  which  alone  for- 
eign goods  could  be  bought  from  foreign  pro- 
ducers, although  domestic  goods,  too,  were  sold 
on  these  occasions.  The  greatest  care  was  doubt- 
less also  taken  on  the  fixed  market  days  when  the 
country  produce  was  sold  to  the  townsmen  and 
the  work  of  the  craftsmen  was  bought  by  the 
farmers. 

The  fact  that  legislation  concerning  fraud  and 

^  Riley,  "  Memorials  of  London,"  p.  278. 


198  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

deceit  was  sufficiently  common  in  the  Middle  Ages 
is  sometimes  construed  into  an  argument  to  prove 
the  existence  of  a  laxity  of  conscience.  The  same 
conclusion  is  drawn  from  the  number  of  judg- 
ments passed  in  this  matter.  The  very  contrary 
however  would  seem  to  follow.  It  is  only  a  high 
conception  of  rectitude  that  can  insist  upon  the 
instant  correction  of  even  the  lesser  offenses  that 
in  more  recent  days  were  to  be  almost  entirely 
overlooked,  while  the  most  flagrant  abuses  grew 
up  unchecked  under  the  capitalistic  regime  in  most 
essential  matters.  A  conscientious  use  of  the  pil- 
lory, as  in  the  days  of  the  old  gildsmen,  would 
have  displayed  a  marvelous  rogues'  gallery  in 
our  public  squares  before  the  pure  food  laws  some- 
what relieved  these  conditions.  Nor  did  abuses 
end  with  them.  We  need  but  refer  to  the  whole- 
sale deceits  practised  in  the  war  by  merchants  and 
manufacturers  of  all  nations.  The  contrast  with 
the  old-time  gild  regulations  will  enable  us  to  ap- 
preciate better  the  watchfulness  of  the  gildsmen 
and  the  high  sense  of  righteousness  exemplified  in 
their  gild  statutes. 

We  may  in  general  accept,  in  this  particular  re- 
gard, the  statement  made  by  Stella  Kramer  in 
*'  The  English  Craft  Gilds  and  the  Government," 
when  she  thus  described  their  economic  activities 
in  the  English  boroughs : 

As  administrators  of  the  land's   law  they  kept  control  over 
market    regulations    for    this    whole    period.     They    saw    that 


THE    GOLDEN    RULE    APPLIED  1 99 

commodities  were  made  of  proper  materials  and  that  they  con- 
formed to  the  standards  of  width,  weight  and  measure.  In  case 
of  fraud  the  consumer  had  redress  from  the  gild  tribunal  as 
well  as  from  that  of  the  common  law.  But  proceedings  at  the 
latter,  for  the  ordinary  breaches  of  market  regulations,  must 
have  been  rather  unsatisfactory.  Indeed,  appeals  on  craft  mat- 
ters to  any  courts  other  than  those  of  the  gilds  were  probably 
slow  and  cumbersome.  The  gild  acted  essentially,  not  as  a  law- 
making body,  but  as  an  administratory  organ  interested  in  the 
maintenance  of  certain  standards  of  production  and  the  enforce- 
ment of  certain  rules  for  market  transactions,  and  its  officers 
were  commissioned  to  bring  transgressors  to  speedy  justice. 
But  it  could  enforce  no  laws  without  the  approval  and  coopera- 
tion of  the  local  powers.  Above  the  local  magnate  stood  the 
State,  occasionally  issuing  national  regulations,  which  also  the 
gild  took  upon  itself  to  execute  (p.  137). 

The  power  of  gild  initiative  doubtless  differed 
greatly  in  various  towns,  and  even  much  more  so 
in  the  various  countries.  It  would  seem  reason- 
able that  gild  statutes  should  not  have  been  given 
a  power  of  control,  which  really  amounted  to  civil 
law,  until  they  had  received  the  sanction  of  mu- 
nicipal or  State  authority.  It  was  sufficient  that 
Crown  and  municipality  recognized  their  import- 
ance and  fully  acknowledged  them  "  as  organs  in 
control  of  every-day  market  transactions."  This 
the  author  absolutely  admits  and  adds :  "  In  prac- 
tice, State,  borough  and  gild  presented  frequently 
the  appearance  of  a  three-fold  combination  work- 
ing together  for  a  common  end.  It  is  therefore 
not  always  easy  to  consider  the  gilds  apart  as  dis- 
tinct organs  with  their  own  special  purposes  and 
functions."  (p.  143.)      This  sufficiently  illustrates 


200  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

both  the  great  power  of  craft  gilds  and  their  aim 
to  secure  in  all  things  the  common  good  of  the 
entire  community  and  not  their  own  class  interests 
as  distinct  from  this  and  opposed  to  it.  At  their 
height  of  development  they  best  illustrate  the 
golden  rule  reduced  to  practice.  They  are  the 
safest  and  the  sanest  model  of  true  Christian  de- 
mocracy in  the  realm  of  industry. 

Of  greatest  importance  was  the  regulation  by 
the  gilds  not  merely  of  the  process  of  manufac- 
ture, but  also  of  its  amount,  wherever  this  was 
necessary.  Thus  over-production  and  unemploy- 
ment were  alike  prevented  by  the  wise  gildsmen. 
This  was  made  possible,  among  other  ways,  by 
preventing  a  surplus  of  apprentices  within  any 
given  trade  and  encouraging  a  greater  number  to 
interest'  themselves  in  the  crafts  that  needed  de- 
velopment. Other  means  were  employed  to  avoid 
temporary  over-production  while  the  workers  and 
their  families  were  never  starving  because  of  sea- 
sons of  unemployment. 

The  problem  of  woman  labor  was  met  with 
equal  wisdom,  and  woman  enjoyed  her  true  place 
and  esteem.  Where  she  chose  the  function  of 
wife  and  mother  the  gild  enabled  her  to  perform 
it  in  all  its  perfection.  So  there  was  work  and 
bread  for  all. 

To  prevent  underselling  or  unfair  competition 
and  at  the  same  time  to  protect  both  the  consumer 
and  the  producer,  prices  too  were  strictly  regu- 


THE   GOLDEN   RULE    APPLIED  20I 

lated.  The  method  was  simplicity  itself.  A  fair 
value  was  set  upon  the  raw  material,  and  a  fair 
reward  was  assigned  for  the  labor  normally  re- 
quired to  produce  the  finished  work  of  craftsman- 
ship. So  much  and  no  more  the  consumer  could 
be  reasonably  expected  to  pay.  So  much  and  no 
more  the  producer  could  reasonably  ask  to  re- 
ceive for  his  work.  There  was  no  middleman  to 
absorb  the  profits.  To  use  improper  methods  of 
advertising  and  to  entice  away  another  craftsman's 
customer  was  an  offense  that  met  with  severe  pun- 
ishment. Not  in  his  very  dreams  could  the  old 
gildsmen  have  conceived  of  the  modern  school  of 
advertising  when  every  article  made  is  the  best 
in  the  market,  and  all  others  are  inferior  in  qual- 
ity or  poor  imitations,  against  which  a  gullible 
public  is  solicitously  warned  by  the  solemn  caution : 
"  Beware  of  imitations."  Honesty  and  merit 
were  to  be  the  only  qualities  by  which  a  buyer  was 
to  be  attracted  to  the  craftsman's  little  shop.  Su- 
perior skill  in  workmanship  was  to  be  the  one  ad- 
vertisement. 

By  these  methods  —  which  are  to  be  copied  in 
principle,  though  not  literally,  by  us  —  prices  were 
kept  within  the  reach  of  all  and  the  extreme  suf- 
ferings brought  upon  modern  civilization  by  the 
constantly  recurring  high  cost  of  living  were  then 
unknown.  Even  so  prejudiced  a  writer  as  Henry 
Hallam  reluctantly  makes  the  following  signifi- 
cant admission: 


202  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

There  is  one  very  unpleasing  remark  which  every  one  wiio 
attends  to  the  subject  of  prices  will  be  induced  to  make,  that  the 
laboring  classes,  especially  those  engaged  in  agriculture,  were 
better  provided  with  the  means  of  subsistence  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  III  or  of  Henry  IV  than  they  are  at  present.  In  the 
fourteenth  century,  Sir  John  Cullum  observes,  a  harvest  man 
had  four  pence  a  day,  which  enabled  him  in  a  week  to  buy  a 
comb  of  wheat.  But  to  buy  a  comb  of  wheat  a  man  must  now 
(1784)  work  ten  or  twelve  days.  (History  of  Hawsted,  p.  228.) 
So  under  Henry  VI,  if  meat  was  at  a  farthing  and  a  half  a 
pound,  which  I  suppose  was  about  the  truth,  a  laborer  earning 
threepence  a  day,  or  eighteen  pence  a  week,  could  buy  a  bushel 
of  wheat  at  six  shillings  the  quarter  and  twenty-four  pounds  of 
meat  for  his  family.  A  laborer  at  present,  earning  twelve 
shillings  a  week,  can  only  buy  half  a  bushel  of  wheat  at  eighty 
shillings  the  quarter,  and  twelve  pounds  of  meat  at  seven- 
pence.  .  .  .  After  every  allowance  has  been  made,  I  should  find 
it  difficult  to  resist  the  conclusion  that,  however  the  laborer  has 
derived  benefit  from  the  cheapness  of  manufactured  commodities 
and  from  many  inventions  of  common  utility,  he  is  much  inferior 
in  ability  to  support  a  family  to  bis  ancestors  three  or  four 
centuries  ago.^ 

The  comparison  here  applied  to  the  respective 
periods  in  which  Cullum  and  Hallam  wrote  their 
histories  is  stated  by  J.  E.  T.  Rogers  to  have  held 
true  already  in  the  early  days  of  the  Reformation. 
"  The  masses  of  the  people,"  as  he  says  in  his 
"  History  of  Agricultural  Prices  in  England  "  (I, 
p.  10),  "were  losers  by  the  Reformation"  It 
became  necessary  to  pass  twelve  Acts  of  Parlia- 
ment between  1541  and  1601  "with  the  distinct 
object  of  providing  relief  against  destitution." 

2  "View  of  the  State  of  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages," 
II,  pp.  814-816.     (Appleton.) 


THE   GOLDEN   RULE   APPLIED  203 

But  there  is  still  another  way  in  which  the  Gold- 
en Rule  was  applied  by  the  craft  gilds.  It  would 
be  impossible  to  enumerate  the  countless  works 
of  charity  performed  by  them.  In  this  particular 
too  there  was  a  wonderful  similarity  among  the 
gilds  of  every  Catholic  country.  Craft  gilds  and 
more  or  less  purely  religious  gilds  here  worked 
side  by  side.  Not  only  were  comfort  and  relief 
generously  afforded  to  poor  gild  brethren  and  sis- 
ters, sick  members  visited,  the  dead  religiously 
buried  at  the  gild  expense,  and  prayers  and  Masses 
offered  for  their  souls,  but  the  poor  of  the  entire 
city  were  remembered  by  the  gilds,  cottages  for 
the  old  and  indigent  were  erected  and  charitable 
institutions  of  every  kind  called  into  being.  Thus 
St.  Job's  Hospital  for  small-pox  was  founded  at 
Hamburg  by  a  gild  of  fishmongers,  shop-keepers 
and  hucksters.^  Free  loans  and  gifts  to  those  in 
need  or  to  the  young  seeking  an  opportunity  for 
self-support,  doweries  for  indigent  girls,  assist- 
ance to  the  imprisoned  or  such  as  were  overtaken 
by  misfortunes  of  any  kind,  lodging  for  pilgrims 
and  the  offering  of  purses  to  enable  them  to  con- 
tinue their  pilgrimages  to  distant  shrines  or  to  the 
Holy  Places  —  these  were  some  of  the  many  com- 
mon charities  practised  by  the  tradesmen  through 
their  crafts  and  brotherhoods.  Roads  and 
bridges  were  repaired  by  them,  schools  supported, 
churches  renewed  or  entirely  built,  and  splendid 

3  Janssen. 


204  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

vestments,  gloriously  illumined  missals,  jeweled 
chalices  and  waxen  candles  for  shrines  or  serv- 
ices abundantly  supplied.  In  the  stately  gild- 
halls,  such  as  were  erected  by  all  the  more  pros- 
perous crafts,  the  poor  were  banqueted  upon  the 
special  religious  feast-days  of  the  gilds.  There 
was  no  want  or  suffering  to  which  human  nature 
may  fall  heir  that  was  not  relieved  in  as  truly  a 
scientific  as  a  Christian  manner  by  gild  and  mon- 
astery. 

The  spirit  of  religion  and  brotherhood  that 
went  hand  in  hand  to  form  the  first  and  only  true 
industrial  democracy  of  the  world's  history,  em- 
bodied in  these  craft  gilds  at  their  perfection,  is 
thus  accurately  described  by  Lujo  Brentano : 

All  had  particular  saints  for  their  patrons,  after  whom  the 
society  was  frequently  called,  and  where  it  was  possible,  they 
chose  one  who  had  some  relation  to  their  trade.  They  founded 
Masses,  altars,  and  painted  windows  in  cathedrals;  and  even  at 
the  present  day  their  coats  of  arms  and  their  gifts  range  proudly 
by  the  side  of  those  of  kings  and  barons.  Sometimes  individual 
craft  gilds  appear  to  have  stood  in  special  relations  to  a  par- 
ticular church,  by  virtue  of  which  they  had  to  perform  special 
services  and  received  in  turn  a  special  share  in  all  the  prayers 
of  the  clergy  of  that  church.  In  later  times  the  craft  gilds  fre- 
quently went  in  solemn  procession  to  their  churches.  We  find 
innumerable  ordinances  also  as  to  the  support  of  the  sick  and 
the  poor,  and  to  afford  a  settled  asylum  for  distress  the  London 
companies  very  early  built  dwellings  near  their  halls.  The 
chief  care  of  the  gildsmen  was  always  directed  to  the  welfare 
of  the  souls  of  the  dead.  Every  year  a  Requiem  was  sung  for 
all  departed  gild  brothers,  when  they  were  all  mentioned  by 
name,   and  on  the  death  of  any  member  special  services  were 


THE    GOLDEN    RULE   APPLIED  205 

held  for  his  soul   and  distribution  of   alms  was  made  to  the 
poor,  who  in  return  had  to  offer  up  prayers  for  the  dead.* 

To  complete  the  picture  given  here  of  the  so- 
cial and  religious  service  of  the  gilds  it  will  suf- 
fice to  quote  the  words  of  Dr.  Jessop.  The  gilds, 
he  wrote  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  referring  in 
general  to  all  these  medieval  organizations : 

Were  benefit  clubs,  they  were  saving  banks,  they  were  social 
unions,  and,  like  every  other  association  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
they  were  religious  bodies,  so  religious  that  they  were  con- 
tinually building  special  chapels  for  themselves,  and  they  had 
chaplains  of  their  own  who  received  a  regular  stipend.  Fre- 
quently they  were  splendidly  provided  with  magnificent  copes 
and  banners  and  hangings  and  large  store  of  costly  chalices  and 
jeweled  service  books  used  on  festive  occasions  in  the  worship 
of  the  gild  chapels;  and  I  have  never  met  with  the  least  indi- 
cation that  the  gilds  were  at  any  moment  other  than  solvent." 

In  proportion  as  this  spirit  of  Christian  Faith 
was  living  and  active  in  the  gilds  of  the  Middle 
Ages  did  they  realize  in  its  fulness  the  golden 
rule  of  the  Gospel's  precept  of  brotherly  love. 

*"  History  and  Development  of  Gilds,"  pp.  69,  70. 
0  March,  1898. 


CHAPTER     XXI 

LEARNING  A  TRADE 

CONSIDERABLE  attention  has  been  given 
in  our  day  to  the  problem  of  apprentice- 
ship. Never  was  this  so  perfectly 
solved  as  in  the  days  of  the  medieval  crafts.  Ap- 
prenticeship was  one  of  the  wisest  and  most  im- 
portant gild  institutions  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It 
was  meant  to  be  a  religious  and  moral,  as  well 
as  an  economic  schooling  for  the  future  crafts- 
man. It  was  in  effect  a  striking  application  of 
the  principle  of  brotherhood  and  mutual  help- 
fulness everywhere  taught  by  the  Church. 

No  similar  institution  is  known  in  all  preced- 
ing history.  Individualism  was  the  marked  char- 
acteristic of  ancient  paganism  as  of  modern  liber- 
alism. In  spite  of  the  workingmen's  unions 
which  for  centuries  existed  in  ancient  Greece  and 
Rome  there  was  no  systematic  attempt  at  trade 
education.  The  task  was  left  to  the  individual. 
There  was  neither  joy  nor  dignity  in  labor.  It 
was  regarded  as  fit  for  the  slave  only.  Cathol- 
ici^ty  restored  it  to  honor,  and  gave  it  those  high 
ideals  which  were  first  to  be  fully  developed  under 
the  aegis  of  the  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

206 


LEARNING   A   TRADE  207 

The  rudimentary  conceptions  of  brotherhood 
which  paganism  contained,  and  which  were  per- 
haps nowhere  more  perfectly  expressed  than  in 
its  gild  life,  were  not  sufficient  to  abolish  the 
stigma  which  rested  upon  labor.  It  was  only 
when  the  Son  of  God  Himself  came  in  the  Per- 
son of  a  Laborer,  that  men  recognized  the  full 
sacredness  of  toil  and  its  appointed  place  in  the 
plan  of  Providence.  Jesus  Himself  was  the  Di- 
vine Apprentice.  The  Builder  of  the  universe 
learned  in  all  obedience  the  trade  of  a  carpenter 
in  the  shop  of  Joseph,  His  foster-father. 

The  first  trade  schools  where  the  crafts  were 
systematically  taught,  where  apprenticeship  and 
industrial  training  may  be  said  to  have  begun, 
were  the  monasteries.  The  monks  themselves 
were  the  first  great  master  craftsmen.  Ora  et 
labora,  "  Labor  and  pray,"  was  their  motto. 

With  the  development  of  the  craft  gilds  the  in- 
stitution of  apprenticeship  likewise  gradually  came 
into  being.  It  was  not  at  first  obligatory  and 
men  might  be  admitted  to  a  gild  and  the  practice 
of  a  trade  upon  the  testimony  of  the  craft  officials, 
provided  the  latter  had  carefully  assured  them- 
selves of  the  proficiency  of  the  candidates.  In 
the  course  of  time  this  alternative  was  no  longer 
accepted;  but  the  term  of  apprenticeship  and  the 
conditions  under  which  it  was  to  be  made  varied 
largely  for  the  different  countries  or  even  for  the 
different   trades   themselves.     An    English   ordi- 


208  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

nance  of  1261  forbids  having  an  apprentice  for 
less  than  ten  years. ^  This  was  considerably  more 
than  the  ordinary  period.  Soon  seven  years  came 
to  be  received  as  the  normal  length  of  apprentice- 
ship in  England.  "  No  apprentice  shall  be  re- 
ceived for  a  less  term  than  seven  years,"  was  the 
London  ordinance.  A  similar  rule  obtained  in 
France,  although  the  term  still  varied  largely. 
Five  or  six  years  as  *'  prentice  "  was  the  Scotch 
gild  law,  "  and  one  year  for  meat  and  fee."  ^ 
During  this  time  a  complete  knowledge  of  the 
trade  was  to  be  acquired. 

The  temptation  might  naturally  arise  to  turn 
apprenticeship  into  child  labor,  but  this  the  gild 
regulations  strenuously  combated.  No  one,  more- 
over, was  to  practise  a  trade  without  having  first 
been  apprenticed.  So  the  English  gild  of  Leather- 
sellers  ordained  that:  "  From  henceforth  no  one 
shall  set  any  man,  child,  or  woman  to  work  in  the 
trade  if  such  person  be  not  first  bound  appren- 
tice, and  enrolled  in  the  trade."  The  master's 
own  wife  and  children  might  of  course  be  of  as- 
sistance to  him.^ 

In  Germany  the  period  of  apprenticeship  varied 
from  two  to  six  years;  but  in   addition  to  this 

^"  Liber  Custumarum,"  536. 

2  Bain,  "  Merchant  and  Craft  Gilds,"  p.  204. 

3  W.   J.    Ashley,   "  English   Economic   History    and   Theory," 
Part  II,  p.  84. 


LEARNING  A   TRADE  209 

there  was  imposed  upon  the  young  journeyman, 
who  had  just  completed  his  term,  the  obligation 
of  traveling,  and  practising  his  trade  abroad. 
These  years  of  "  wandering  "  were  to  give  him 
experience  and  varied  knowledge  of  his  craft. 
They  were  meant  to  be  the  completion  of  his 
technical  education.  This  practice,  though  like- 
wise observed  in  France,  was  not  known  in  Eng- 
land. During  the  term  of  apprenticeship  proper, 
the  remuneration,  if  any,  was  frequently  insignifi- 
cant. In  many  instances  it  was  very  slight  in  the 
beginning  of  the  term  and  regularly  increased  with 
the  years.  It  was  often,  however,  no  more  than 
the  equivalent  of  a  modest  allowance  of  pocket 
money.  In  some  cases  the  apprentice  after  con- 
cluding his  term  was  to  remain  with  his  master  for 
another  year  at  a  set  wage.  Tools,  food  and 
other  necessaries,  often  including  also  clothing  of 
a  stipulated  kind,  were  furnished  by  the  master. 

Apprenticeship  was  the  novitiate  of  the  crafts- 
man. It  was  even  preceded  in  many  instances  by 
a  probation,  as  we  find  was  the  case  in  Germany 
where  frequently  a  full  month  was  required  for 
this  preliminary  test  of  fitness.  The  youth  to  be 
admitted  was  moreover  to  have  been  born  in 
honest  wedlock,  for  it  was  not  considered  befitting 
that  any  one  should  be  a  master  craftsman  whose 
fair  name  was  blemished  by  even  the  slightest 
stain.     Everywhere  the  general  principle  was  re- 


2IO  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

ceived  that  the  artisan  who  would  aspire  to  the 
dignity  of  masterhood  must  hold  his  reputation  as 
sacred  as  the  honor  of  a  king. 

The  admission  therefore  into  this  gild  novitiate 
was  often  conducted  with  the  most  impressive 
ceremonies.  It  took  place  in  the  gildhall  before 
the  assembled  masters,  or  even  in  the  town  hall 
itself  in  presence  of  the  public  authorities.  The 
apprentice  now  solemnly  pledged  himself  "  to 
begin  his  future  calling  in  the  name  of  God,  to  be 
obedient,  faithful  and  attentive  to  his  master,  and 
by  his  moral  conduct  to  render  himself  worthy  of 
becoming  in  time  a  worthy  member  of  the  gild 
and  of  civil  society."  ^  His  name  was  then  en- 
rolled among  the  gild  apprentices.  Such  import- 
ance was  given  to  this  function  when  the  gilds 
were  in  their  perfection. 

The  young  apprentice  now  lived  in  the  master's 
house  as  a  member  of  the  family.  He  was  to  be 
subject  to  his  master  in  fidelity  and  obedience  as 
a  son  to  his  father,  and  was  to  receive  a  corre- 
sponding care  and  attention  in  return.  Nothing 
was  to  be  kept  secret  from  him  that  might  further 
him  in  his  trade.  But  above  all  he  was  to  be 
protected  with  scrupulous  watchfulness,  so  that, 
like  his  Divine  Model,  he  might  advance  in  wis- 
dom and  grace  as  well  as  in  age.  His  moral  con- 
duct and  his  observance  of  religious  duties  were 
to  be  foremost  in  the  master's  eye.     If  in  any 

*  Huber-Libenau,  p.  23. 


LEARNING   A    TRADE  211 

way  he  failed  he  was  to  be  chastised,  "  so  that 
through  the  pain  of  the  body  the  soul  may  re- 
ceive good."  In  the  good  old  days  men  did  not 
believe  in  our  modern  educational  principle  of 
sparing  the  rod  and  spoiling  the  child.  In  France, 
however,  there  was  a  special  rule  that  he  must 
not  be  beaten  by  the  master's  wife.  The  English 
statutes  require  that  he  be  chastised  "  duly,  but 
not  otherwise." 

The  true  spirit  of  apprenticeship,  as  inculcated 
by  the  Church,  is  nowhere  more  beautifully  ex- 
pressed than  in  the  book  of  "  Christian  Exhorta- 
tion": 

No  trade  or  profession  can  succeed  honorably  unless  the 
apprentice  is  early  taught  to  fear  God,  and  to  be  obedient  to 
his  master  as  if  he  were  his  father.  He  must,  morning  and 
evening  and  during  his  work,  beg  God's  help  and  protection, 
for  without  God  he  can  do  nothing;  no  protection  of  men  is  of 
avail  without  the  protection  of  God,  and  often  even  hurtful 
to  the  soul.  Every  Sunday  and  holy  day  he  must  hear  Mass 
and  sermon  and  read  good  books.  He  must  be  industrious  and 
seek  not  his  own  glory,  but  God's.  The  honor  of  his  master 
and  of  his  trade  he  must  also  seek,  for  this  is  holy,  and  he  may 
one  day  be  master  himself  if  God  wills  and  he  is  worthy  of  it.^ 

The  duties  of  the  master  are  laid  down  with 
no  less  discernment: 

The  master  must  not  be  weak-hearted  towards  the  apprentice, 
but  neither  must  he  be  tyrannical  nor  too  exacting,  as  often 
happens.  The  master  shall  protect  the  apprentice  from  railler- 
ies,   ear-pullings,    and    abuse    from    the    journeymen.     Masters, 

5  Janssen,  "  History  of  the  German  People,"  II,  p.  20. 


212  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

think  of  your  duties.  The  apprentice  has  been  entrusted  to  you 
by  the  gild  to  care  for  his  soul  and  body  according  to  the  laws 
of  God  and  the  corporation.  You  must  account  for  your  ap- 
prentice and  care  for  him  as  if  he  were  your  own  son.  You  are 
not  master  only  to  govern  and  to  do  masterwork,  but  also  to 
command  yourself  as  Christianity  and  your  trade  require.  Re- 
member, masters,  you  must  be  an  example  to  your  wife  and 
children,  to  your  apprentices  and   servants.^ 

The  gild  did  not  fail,  as  the  historian  remarks, 
to  provide  the  young  man  with  securities  against 
an  unworthy  master.  As  the  bans  are  proclaimed 
before  marriage  in  the  Catholic  Church,  so  before 
an  apprentice  was  committed  to  a  gildsman  the 
question  was  asked  in  the  full  assembly  of  the 
craft  if  any  fault  could  be  found  with  the  future 
master  either  as  a  Christian  or  a  craftsman. 
Again  when  the  term  of  service  was  over  the  ap- 
prentice was  publicly  to  bring  his  charges,  if  any 
injustice  had  been  done  him,  or  else  "  remain  for- 
ever silent."  He  was  now  amid  further  solem- 
nities freed  from  his  obligations  to  his  former 
master  and  furnished  with  his  diploma.  His 
status,  however,  was  not  perfect  until,  in  later 
times,  he  had  been  received  into  the  brotherhood 
of  journeymen,  a  reception  which  took  place  amid 
much  merriment,  but  not  unaccompanied  by  seri- 
ous admonitions  and  sage  and  religious  advice. 

Like  all  human  institutions  the  system  of  ap- 
prenticeship was  subject  to  abuses  which  rapidly 
accumulated  in  the  days  of  religious  decline  and 

« Ibid. 


LEARNING   A   TRADE  213 

of  the  Reformation.  The  term  of  apprentice- 
ship was  at  times  made  unconscionably  long,  ex- 
tending in  England  to  as  many  as  twelve  years. 
In  France  it  varied  from  two  to  twelve  years. '^ 
In  Germany,  where  the  indenture  was  for  a  lesser 
period  than  in  England,  the  years  of  "  wander- 
ing "  were  often  unduly  prolonged.  They  were 
known  to  extend  even  over  seven  years  and  more. 

Technical  skill  was  evidently  not  the  only  ob- 
ject where  such  conditions  prevailed.  Care,  too, 
was  taken  at  a  later  date  to  exclude  those  of 
"  villein  estate  or  condition."  Attempts  were 
made  in  the  reigns  of  Richard  II  and  Henry  IV 
to  prevent  the  vast  emigration  from  country  to 
town  by  legislating  that  children  who  had  been 
employed  upon  the  farm  until  the  age  of  twelve 
were  to  remain  in  that  occupation. 

Strict  limitations  were  set  regarding  the  num- 
ber of  apprentices  that  could  be  employed  by  a 
single  master.  It  usually  varied,  according  to  the 
different  periods  or  conditions,  from  one  to  three. 
In  later  years,  with  the  more  complete  develop- 
ment of  industry  and  commerce,  a  certain  propor- 
tion was  to  be  preserved  between  the  number  of 
apprentices  and  journeymen.  The  reason  was 
evident.  Apprenticeship  was  then  degenerating 
into  child  labor  and  the  adult  workingmen  were 
obliged  to  protest  in  self-defense.  Before  this 
stage  had  been  attained,  however,  the  object  of 

'  Boileau,  "  Livre  des  Metiers." 


214  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

limitation  had  been  to  provide  a  good  technical 
training  and  later  to  avoid  an  overcrowding  in 
the  various  provinces  of  skilled  labor.  The  true 
gild  idea  was  that  no  master  should  have  more 
apprentices  than  he  could  properly  "  keep,  in- 
form, teach  and  maintain,"  that  he  might  make 
of  them  good  craftsmen  and  excellent  Christians. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Richard  II 
a  distinction  began  to  be  drawn  between  the 
wealthier  and  the  more  indigent  gilds,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  former  gaining  a  political  as  well  as 
social  predominance,  and  being  privileged  to 
wear  a  special  livery.^  In  1489  we  meet  with 
a  regulation  enacted  in  London  by  which  the  gilds- 
men  "  out  of  clothing,"  i.  e.,  not  wearing  liveries, 
might  employ  one  apprentice  and  no  more,  except 
they  had  good  reason  for  complaint,  while  those 
"  of  the  clothing "  might  have  two  apprentices 
and  no  more.  He  who  had  been  warden  might 
have  three,  and  the  upper  warden,  four.®  These 
distinctions  were  henceforth  to  become  more  ac- 
centuated, and  the  name  of  "  crafts  "  and  "  mys- 
teries "  came  into  common  use  in  place  of  "  gilds." 

Another  sign  of  decline  was  the  levying  of 
large  fees  both  upon  the  entrance  to  apprentice- 
ship and  to  mastership.  Such  abuses,  too,  reached 
their  climax  in  the  post-Reformation  days,  while 
they  were  unheard  of  in  the  period  of  true  gild 

'  William  Herbert,  "  Livery  Companies  of  London,"  pp.  36,  37. 
•Williams,  "Founders,"  p.  11. 


LEARNING   A   TRADE  215 

development.  "  It  was  a  great  matter  in  for- 
mer times  to  give  £10  to  bind  an  apprentice,"  says 
Stowe,  referring  even  then  to  the  days  of  the  de- 
cline, *'  but  in  King  James  Vs  time  they  gave  £20, 
£40,  £60  and  sometimes  £100  with  an  apprentice. 
But  now  these  prices  are  vastly  enhanced  to 
£500,  or  £600,  or  £800."  ^^  Brentano  remarks 
that  reference  is  probably  made  here  to  the 
Twelve  Great  Companies. 

Finally  the  famous  Statute  of  Apprentices, 
drawn  up  in  "  the  spacious  days "  of  good 
*'  Queen  Bess,"  and  technically  known  as  "  5  Eliz. 
cap.  4,"  sought  to  reinstate  the  institution  of  ap- 
prenticeship which  had  then  largely  fallen  into 
disuse.  It  was  at  last  to  be  replaced,  under  the 
old  name,  by  pure  child  labor.  The  hours  of 
work  were  fixed  by  her  at  twelve,  as  a  minimum; 
but  a  labor  day  of  fifteen  and  sixteen  hours  was 
not  considered  unnatural  for  children  in  their 
teens  by  the  new  Individualism  in  which  the 
Reformation  culminated  on  its  economic  side. 
Pauperism,  which  arose  at  the  same  time,  was  to 
extend  its  abhorrent  effects  equally  to  the  unhappy 
little  ones.     Says  Professor  Hayes  of  Columbia: 

There  was  a  law  by  which  pauper  children  could  be  forced 
to  work,  and  under  this  law  thousands  of  poor  children,  five 
and  six  years  old,  were  taken  from  their  homes,  sent  from 
parish  to  parish  to  work  in  factories,  and  bought  and  sold  in 
gangs  like  slaves.     In  the  factories  they  were  set  to  work  with- 

i**  Ed.  1720,  p.  329. 


2l6  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

out  pay,  the  cheapest  of  food  being  all  they  could  earn.  If  they 
refused  to  work  irons  were  put  around  their  ankles,  and  they 
were  chained  to  the  machine,  and  at  night  they  were  locked  up 
in  the  sleeping  huts.  The  working  day  was  long  —  from  five 
or  six  in  the  morning  until  nine  or  ten  at  night.  Often  the  chil- 
dren felt  their  arms  ache  with  fatigue  and  their  eyelids  grow 
heavy  with  sleep,  but  they  were  kept  awake  by  the  whip  of  the 
overseer.  Many  of  the  little  children  died  of  over-work,  and 
others  were  carried  off  by  diseases  which  were  bred  by  filth,  fa- 
tigue and  insufficient  food.^^ 

Boys  and  girls  alike  were  subjected  to  the  same 
slavery.  "  Harnessed  and  chained  like  dogs  to 
go-carts,"  as  another  writer  says,  "  these  poor 
little  slaves  might  be  seen  half-naked  and  ill-fed 
crawling  on  all  fours  dragging  after  them  the 
coal-trucks  filled."  So  hour  after  hour  they  made 
their  way  through  the  dark,  low  tunnels  of  the 
coal  pits.  "  But  why  did  not  the  churches  inter- 
fere?" asks  Father  Vaughan.  "I  am  afraid," 
he  is  obliged  to  answer,  "  that  the  established 
Church  at  the  time  was  on  the  side  of  capital. 
Methodism  was  all  for  Quietism,  while  the  Cath- 
olic Church  had  not  yet  emerged  in  England  from 
her  catacombs.  She  was  hardly  allowed  to  live, 
let  alone  to  utter."  ^^  Voices  like  those  of  Mrs. 
Browning  were  at  a  later  date  to  arouse  the  land: 

The  young  lambs  are  bleating  in  the  meadoivs; 
The  young  birds  are  chirping  in  the  nest; 

"Carlton  J.  H.   Hayes,  "A  Political   and  Social   History  of 
Europe,"  II,  pp.  85,  86. 

12  London  Universe,  May  3,  1918. 


LEARNING    A    TRADE  217 

The  young  faivns  are  playing  ivith  the  shadoivs; 

The  young  Hoiuers  are  blooming  totvard  the  luest  — 
But  the  young,  young  children,  O  my  brothers, 

They  are  iveeping  bitterly! 
They  are  iveeping  in  the  playtime  of  the  others. 

In  the  country  of  the  free.^^ 

Anti-slavery  orators  dilated  eloquently  upon 
the  miseries  of  the  negroes,  while  the  children  of 
Englishmen  at  home,  as  Sir  Robert  Peel  said  in 
1 8 16,  "torn  from  their  beds  were  compelled  to 
work,  at  the  age  of  six  years,  from  early  morn 
till  late  at  night,  a  space  of  perhaps  fifteen  or  six- 
teen hours,"  under  the  lashes  of  even  more  heart- 
less slave-masters.  Such  was  the  institution  that 
had  replaced  the  apprenticeship  system  of  the 
Catholic  gilds  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

The  possibility  of  a  system  of  apprenticeship 
such  as  existed  in  the  best  days  of  the  medieval 
gilds  is  indeed  no  longer  to  be  realized.  But  it 
does  not  follow  that  we  cannot  apply  their  prin- 
ciples in  our  own  times,  by  a  true  craft  educa- 
tion, combined  with  morality  and  religion.  Chris- 
tian schools  are  here,  as  elsewhere,  of  the  high- 
est importance.  Unfortunately  a  vast  propor- 
tion of  the  industrial  output  under  capitalism  has 
been  such  that  articles  were  made  merely  to  sell 
at  the  biggest  profit.  Perfect  and  durable  work 
was  often  not  even  desired.  The  joy  and  satis- 
faction of  expert  craftsmanship  could  no  longer 

13  "  The  Cry  of  the  Children.*' 


2l8  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

be  realized  in  the  specialized  factory  work,  re- 
quiring only  a  momentary  instruction.  Entire 
classes  of  skilled  labor  were  cast  helpless  upon 
the  labor  market  by  the  invention  of  new  ma- 
chinery. Yet  a  wide  field  remains  for  the  expert 
and  the  craftsman.  For  the  rest,  we  must  take 
modern  conditions  as  we  find  them  and  seek  to  re- 
produce, so  far  as  we  can,  the  spirit  of  joy,  char- 
ity, justice  and  religion  that  were  found  in  the 
crafts  when  gildhood  and  brotherhood  were  still 
in  their  perfection.  The  teachings  of  Chris- 
tianity are  for  all  time  and  can  never  become  ob- 
solete or  inapplicable  in  any  rightful  system  of  in- 
dustry adapted  to  the  existing  periods  of  economic 
development.  Under  no  circumstances  must  fac- 
tory and  workshop  be  permitted  to  become  schools 
of  immorality  and  irreligion,  where  heart  and  in- 
tellect alike  are  perverted  and  the  whole  man  is 
degraded  to  a  level  that  makes  him  the  fit  tool  of 
godless  agitators  and  anarchistic  revolutionists. 

With  the  conscientiousness  of  the  medieval 
gildsman  we  must  watch  over  our  youth,  preserv- 
ing for  them  their  true  inheritance  and  opening 
to  them  their  just  opportunities  both  industrially 
and  religiously.  In  their  program  of  "  Social 
Reconstruction,"  the  American  Bishops  thus  ex- 
pressed their  attitude  towards  the  particular  mod- 
ern phase  of  this  subject  known  as  vocational 
training,  showing  their  keen  interest  no  less  in  the 


LEARNING   A   TRADE  219 

intellectual  than  in  the  religious  and  physical  wel- 
fare of  the  laborer  and  his  children: 

The  need  of  industrial  or,  as  it  has  come  to  be  more  generally 
called,  vocational  training  is  now  universally  acknowledged. 
In  the  interest  of  the  nation,  as  well  as  in  that  of  the  workers 
themselves,  this  training  should  be  made  substantially  univer- 
sal. While  we  can  not  now  discuss  the  subject  in  any  detail, 
we  do  wish  to  set  down  two  general  observations.  First,  the 
vocational  training  should  be  offered  in  such  forms  and  condi- 
tions as  not  to  deprive  the  children  of  the  working  classes  of  at 
least  the  elements  of  a  cultural  education.  A  healthy  democracy 
can  not  tolerate  a  purely  industrial  or  trade  education  for  any 
class  of  its  citizens.  We  do  not  want  to  have  the  children  of  the 
wage  earners  put  into  a  special  class  in  which  they  are  marked 
as  outside  the  sphere  of  opportunities  for  culture.  The  second 
observation  is  that  the  system  of  vocational  training  should  not 
operate  so  as  to  weaken  in  any  degree  our  parochial  schools  or 
any  other  class  of  private  schools.  Indeed,  the  opportunities  of 
the  system  should  be  extended  to  all  qualified  private  schools 
on  exactly  the  same  basis  as  to  public  schools.  We  want  neither 
class  divisions  in  education  nor  a  State  monopoly  of  education. 

The  question  of  education  naturally  suggests  the  subject  of 
child  labor.  Public  opinion  in  the  majority  of  the  States  of  our 
country  has  set  its  face  inflexibly  aganst  the  continuous  employ- 
ment of  children  in  industry  before  the  age  of  16  years.  Within 
a  reasonably  short  time  all  of  our  States,  except  some  stagnant 
ones,  will  have  laws  providing  for  this  reasonable  standard.^* 

So,  from  first  to  last,  has  the  Catholic  Church 
ever  been  eager  to  champion  the  interests  of  the 
working  classes,  beginning  with  their  earliest  edu- 
cation and  devoting  herself  to  them  unstintedly 
with  all  her  zeal  and  love. 

"January  i,  1819. 


CHAPTER     XXII 

THE  FIRST  MODERN  LABOR  CLASS 

CRAFTSMEN,  apprentices  and  journeymen 
formed  the  triple  alliance  of  labor  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  All  these  classes  did  not 
however  spring  into  being  at  once,  and  it  was  long 
before  they  had  developed  into  distinct  parts  of 
a  complete  gild  system.  Apprenticeship  was  al- 
ready becoming  a  necessary  preliminary  for  mas- 
tership while  the  journeymen  were  as  yet  rarely 
mentioned  in  the  gild  statutes.  As  a  class,  they 
may  be  said  to  have  come  into  existence  during 
the  fourteenth  century.  The  most  detailed  ref- 
erence is  made  to  them  in  the  German  gild  statutes 
of  the  middle  of  this  century,  at  which  time  they 
also  first  appeared  in  England  as  a  definite  body 
of  workers  with  distinct  interests.  They  were 
then  variously  known  as  yeomen,  journeymen, 
valets  or  servants.  The  German  Geselle  and  the 
French  compagnon  express  more  perfectly  the  in- 
timate relation  of  fellowship  and  family  associa- 
tion that  existed  between  master  and  journeyman. 

Of  the  three  grades  within  the  gild  system,  the 
journeymen  alone  corresponded,  in  a  certain  de- 
gree, to  the  modern  laborer.  Yet  even  this  cor- 
respondence was  vague  and  entirely  wanting  in 

220 


THE    FIRST   MODERN    LABOR   CLASS        221 

the  beginning,  when  the  journeyman,  though  la- 
boring for  wages  under  an  employer,  was  really 
looking  forward  to  the  day  when  he  would  open 
his  little  shop  in  one  of  the  narrow,  winding  streets 
of  his  own  cherished  town,  and  be  honored  as  mas- 
ter gildsman. 

The  reason  for  the  rise  of  a  journeyman  class 
is  obvious.  It  was  not  always  possible  or  desir- 
able for  the  apprentice,  upon  completing  his  ap- 
pointed term,  to  practise  his  craft  as  an  independ- 
ent master.  Hence  he  would  often  remain  for  a 
space  of  years  as  an  assistant  to  his  former  mas- 
ter or  to  some  other  craftsman  in  need  of  his  serv- 
ice. The  number  of  these  journeymen  was  at 
first  comparatively  small  and  their  condition  one 
of  the  closest  intimacy  with  their  employers.  The 
journeyman  was  as  the  elder  son  of  the  family  in 
which  he  lived  and  worked.  In  dress  and  conduct 
he  was  obliged  to  do  honor  to  the  gild,  even  as 
the  master's  wife  was  to  sustain  the  fair  name  of 
his  craft  by  her  virtue  and  decorum.  Both  jour- 
neymen and  apprentices  were  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  craft  gild. 

The  journeyman,  in  brief,  was  looked  upon  as  a 
member  of  the  household  for  whose  conduct  and 
religious  behavior  the  master  was  accountable  be- 
fore God.  The  same  responsibility  was  consid- 
ered to  rest  upon  the  gild  itself.  Gambling,  late 
hours  and  worse  vices  on  the  part  of  the  journey- 
man could  not  therefore  be  ignored  by  the  mas- 


222  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

ter,  and  were  strictly  guarded  against  by  the  gild 
rules.  Disobedience  or  irreverent  behavior  were 
to  be  seriously  punished.  Since,  at  this  early  pe- 
riod, the  journeyman  was  bound  to  live  beneath 
the  master's  roof  and  was  hardly  less  incorporated 
into  his  family  than  the  apprentice  himself,  it  nat- 
urally followed  that  he  could  not  be  married. 
Thus  a  statute  of  the  Bakers'  Gild  of  Mainz,  1352, 
reads:  "  We  are  agreed  that  whatsover  journey- 
man marries  a  housewife  is  no  longer  to  be  kept 
by  his  master  than  his  contract  lasts.  He  should 
then  pay  for  his  shop  {er  enkeufe  danne  den 
marcket)  and  become  master."  ^ 

Such  regulations  can  be  readily  understood,  if 
we  remember,  as  was  already  stated,  that  the  jour- 
neyman, like  the  apprentice,  was  merely  in  a  tran- 
sitional stage  of  his  career  which  would  last  only 
until  he  could  becomingly  provide  for  a  family  in 
a  manner  to  bring  honor  to  himself  and  credit 
to  his  gild.  In  France  such  a  transitional  stage, 
known  as  le  compagnonnage,  was  made  a  definite 
condition  for  mastership  towards  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century..  The  journeyman  might, 
however,  freely  choose  his  master  and  freely  make 
his  terms,  in  so  far  as  these  were  not  regulated  by 
gild  statutes.  Like  the  master  himself,  he  might 
count  on  gild  assistance  in  his  need.^     The  time 

1  Bohmer,  "Beitrdge  zur  Geschichte  des  Zunftioesens." 

2  fitienne  Martin  Saint-Leon,  "  Histoire  des   Corporations  de 
Metiers." 


THE    FIRST   MODERN    LABOR   CLASS        223 

would  soon  come  when  he  would  marry  and  be- 
come an  independent  master  craftsman.  He  could 
then  set  up  his  own  shop,  take  his  place  in  the 
gildhall  and  be  honored  in  the  land,  until  the  in- 
signia of  his  trade  would  at  last  be  laid  upon  his 
grave,  and  the  prayers  of  his  brethren  and  the 
Masses  offered  for  his  soul  by  them  would  be  pre- 
sented at  the  Throne  of  God.  Nor  would  his 
family  be  forgotten,  if  through  any  misfortune 
he  left  them  in  want,  since  the  charity  of  the  gild 
would  provide  for  them. 

Nowhere  perhaps  is  the  Christian  spirit  of 
these  early  gilds  more  evident  than  in  some  of  the 
regulations  made  by  the  gild  masters  for  the  wages 
of  their  assistants.  Thus  while  the  master  tilers 
of  London,  according  to  the  regulations  drawn 
up  in  1350,  were  to  receive  5^d.  a  day  during 
summer,  and  45^d.  in  winter,  their  journeymen 
were  allowed  3/^d.  during  the  longer  season  and 
3d.  during  the  shorter.  Considering  the  addi- 
tional burdens  resting  on  the  master  worker,  and 
understanding  that  both  labored  equally  hard  and 
long,  the  division  of  the  payment  may  well  be  con- 
sidered adequate.  Even  better  terms  were  made 
by  the  master  daubers,  to  whose  5d.  and  4d.  cor- 
responded the  3>2d.  and  3d.  of  their  garqons  or 
journeymen.^  Since  the  master  and  his  assistants 
usually  worked  to  the  order  of  their  customers, 
except  in  seasons  of  lax  trade,  provisions  were 

»  H.  T.  Riley,  "  Memorials  of  London,"  p.  251. 


224  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

often  contained  In  the  gild  statutes  of  this  period 
that  payment  must  be  made  directly  to  the  journey- 
man by  the  party  engaging  his  services,  and  not 
through  the  master.  By  a  particular  arrangement 
the  Builders  of  Niirnberg,  both  masters  and  jour- 
neymen, stood  immediately  under  the  city  council, 
were  equally  independent,  and  received  equal 
wages.'*  At  the  head  of  the  stone-masons  stood 
a  skilled  monk,  who  drew  the  plans  and  supervised 
the  buildings.  No  difficulties  occurred  In  the  cities 
where  these  conditions  prevailed  until  the  monas- 
tery leadership  passed  into  the  hands  of  secular 
masters.  Even  then  the  old  traditions  were  not 
entirely  lost.^ 

But  we  now  come  to  a  period  when  the  number 
of  journeymen  was  growing  larger  and  capital  be- 
came of  greater  consequence.  The  time  arrived 
when  it  was  not  possible  for  every  journeyman  to 
become  a  master.  Such  men  could  obviously  no 
longer  remain  part  of  the  master's  family  and  must 
provide  their  own  homes.  They  alone  correspond 
to  the  laboring  class  of  later  years.^  Hence  the 
reason  for  a  new  form  of  organization:  the  jour- 
neymen gilds.  These  arose  at  the  end  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  and  under  the  name  of  Gesselenver- 
bdnde  became  well  nigh  universal  in   Germany. 

*  Georg  Schanz,  " Zur  Gesch'tchte  der  deutschen  Gesellen-Ver- 
bdnde,"  pp.  67,  68. 

'^  Ibid. 

"  W.  J.  Ashley,  "  Introduction  to  English  Economic  History,'* 
II,  pp.  loi,  102. 


THE    FIRST    MODERN    LABOR    CLASS         225 

They  were  wide-spread  also  throughout  France, 
England  and  western  Europe  in  general,  but  the 
contrast  and  often  the  conflict  between  masters' 
gilds  and  journeymen  gilds  was  most  marked  in 
Germany.  In  England  these  gilds,  where  they 
survived,  seem  finally  to  have  become  merely  sub- 
sidiary organs  to  the  masters'  organizations.'^ 

When  these  new  institutions  first  appeared  in 
their  full  strength  the  deterioration  of  the  mas- 
ters' gilds  had  already  begun.  The  great  influx 
of  country  population  into  the  towns  had  helped, 
economically,  to  aggravate  the  situation.  The 
craft  gilds  themselves  were  slowly  entering  upon  a 
policy  of  exclusiveness.  Entrance  fees  were  raised 
until  in  later  days  they  often  became  extravagant. 
In  the  meantime  comparatively  slight  fees  were 
exacted  from  those  belonging  to  the  gildsmen's 
own  families.  In  some  instances  membership  be- 
came hereditary.  Thus  a  monopoly  might  be 
created  by  the  leading  families.  Entire  classes 
were  excluded  by  various  legislations  from  even 
entering  upon  apprenticeship.  Such  laws  were  at 
times  directed  by  the  State  itself  against  the  chil- 
dren who  had,  for  a  certain  period  at  least,  worked 
upon  the  farms.  Their  object  was  to  prevent  the 
depopulation  of  the  agricultural  sections.  In  Ger- 
many, France  and  Scotland  the  execution  of  a 
masterpiece  was  demanded  of  the  journeyman  be- 
fore  he    could   be    admitted   to   the    craft   gild. 

'  Gross. 


226  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

Hence  the  chef  d'asuvre.^  The  idea  was  in  itself 
excellent,  but  with  the  decline  of  the  gilds  the  con- 
ditions set  were  at  times  such  as  to  make  this  task 
not  merely  difficult,  but  very  costly,  while  the  ar- 
ticle produced  was  often  unsaleable.  To  this  was 
added  in  Germany  the  expensive  Meisteressen,  or 
inauguratory  dinner,  after  the  journeyman  had 
completed  his  prescribed  years  of  traveling  and 
produced  his  Meisterstiick.^ 

Such  were  some  of  the  abuses  that  arose  as  the 
influence  of  the  Church  was  lessened  and  her  prin- 
ciples of  charity  and  social  justice  were  in  part  dis- 
regarded. The  climax  was  reached  with  the  Ref- 
ormation and  the  years  that  followed.  Thus  at 
Strassburg,  the  center  of  the  new  religion,  as 
Schanz  recounts,  the  holidays  were  cut  off,  wages 
instead  of  being  raised  between  Christmas  and 
St.  James's  Day  were  lowered  and  other  restric- 
tions were  enacted.^"  Cromwell  abolished  the 
feasts  of  Christmas,  Easter,  "  and  other  festivals 
called  holidays,"  as  superstitious.  The  fixed 
"  play  days  "  given  later  were  no  adequate  sub- 
stitute. 

"  The  Reformation,"  says  Bruno  Schoenlank, 
a  foremost  non-Catholic  authority  upon  this  sub- 
ject, "  was  drawing  its  social  conclusions,  the 
golden  age  of  the  laborer  was  coming  to  an  end, 

*  fitienne  Martin  Saint-Leon,  op.  cit.,  p.  92. 

•  Lugo  Brentano,  "  History  and  Development  of  Gilds." 
**•  Georg  Schanz,  op.  cit.,  pp.  56-66. 


THE    FIRST    MODERN    LABOR    CLASS         227 

capitalism  began  to  bestir  itself."  There  was  a 
tightening  of  the  autocracy  of  the  State  regime. 
The  free  holidays  of  Catholic  times  were  done 
away  with.  Journe)Hnen  *'  were  obliged  to  pro- 
duce a  far  greater  amount  of  work,  without  hav- 
ing their  wages  raised.  They  were  strained  far 
more  than  before  and  were  far  more  intensively 
exploited."  Difficulties  of  every  kind  were  put  in 
their  way  that  they  might  not  become  masters, 
and  their  right  to  marry  was  unconscionably  post- 
poned. Thus  according  to  a  decree  of  October 
9,  1 6 13,  the  pamphlet-maker  journeymen  were 
not  to  marry  until  they  had  practiced  their  trade 
twelve  years  without  interruption.  Any  one  vio- 
lating this  law  was  to  be  "  entirely  deposed  from 
his  trade  and  might  never  again  be  helped  to  re- 
sume it."  Finally  the  silk-weavers'  journeymen 
were  commanded  by  the  Niirnberg  city  council, 
about  1650,  to  observe  "  the  fear  of  God  and  a 
fifteen-hour  work  day."  Such  was  the  economic 
result  of  the  Reformation,  as  vouched  for  by  Prot- 
estant and  other  non-Catholic  authorities.^^ 

The  journeymen  gilds  began  as  religious  con- 
fraternities, and  indeed  retained  this  character 
even  after  the  Reformation  in  Catholic  sections. 
In  the  meantime  they  were  gradually  developing 
economic  features  and  championing  the  interests 
of  their  members.     There  was  at  this  early  period 

1^  Bruno  Schoenlank,  "  Sociale  Kdmpfe  vor  300  Jahren,"  pp. 
51,  73,  143,  146.     (Second  Edition.) 


228  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

no  evidence  of  what  might  be  called  a  conflict  be- 
tween capital  and  labor.  The  number  of  journey- 
men who  might  be  employed  by  any  single  master 
was  very  restricted.  Until  the  day  of  their  ab- 
solute decline  the  craft  gilds  sought  to  prevent  the 
concentration  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a  few. 
Hence  the  number  of  journeymen  that  could  be 
engaged  by  even  the  most  prosperous  gildsman 
was  usually  restricted  to  two  or  three,  together 
with  a  proportionate  number  of  apprentices.  Fre- 
quently, in  the  early  statutes,  the  master  was  lim- 
ited to  a  single  servant.  No  craftsman,  at  this 
period,  was  likely  to  have  more  than  two  journey- 
men and  as  many  apprentices.  Considering  the 
methods  of  production  then  employed,  such  meas- 
ures did  not  interfere  with  the  quantity  of  the  out- 
put, while  they  greatly  enhanced  its  quality  and 
absolutely  prevented  every  form  of  capitalism. 
Under  these  conditions  apprentices  and  journey- 
men could  still  have  every  reasonable  opportunity 
of  attaining  to  mastership,  and  the  journeymen 
gilds  were  rather  religious  and  social  than  eco- 
nomic in  their  nature.  Later,  however,  when  the 
number  of  apprentices  was  increased  and  more 
capital  was  consequently  required  for  competition, 
fewer  could  attain  to  economic  independence,  and 
even  the  work  itself  of  the  journeymen  might  be 
threatened.  The  worst  conditions  arose  where 
the  craft  gilds  themselves  had  lost  their  religious 
principles,  or  failed  to  put  them  into  practice,  and 


THE    FIRST    MODERN    LABOR    CLASS         229 

became  capitalistic  and  exclusive.  In  proportion 
as  this  took  place  the  journeymen  gilds  became 
militant  organizations  and  the  conflict  between  the 
oligarchic  merchant  gilds  of  the  Continent  and  the 
early  trade  gilds  was  repeated,  but  with  far  less 
success  for  the  organizations  of  the  journeymen 
that  now  really  represented  the  labor  class.  Al- 
though this  situation  reached  its  climax  after  the 
Reformation,  it  had  already  become  serious 
enough  in  many  instances  before  this  time.  In 
France  it  became  necessary,  as  early  as  1456,  to 
insist  that  masters  must  personally  supervise  their 
shops. ^- 

In  the  beginning,  even  where  conflicts  developed, 
a  tolerable  understanding  existed  between  masters 
and  journeymen.  The  old  disputes,  says  Bren- 
tano,  seemed  merely  like  family  disagreements, 
between  parents  and  children.  The  situation 
could  not  be  stated  more  exactly.  Nowhere  was 
there  a  trace  of  opposition  to  the  existing  system, 
or  of  a  class  struggle,  in  the  Socialistic  sense  of 
the  word.^'  In  most  instances  a  working  agree- 
ment was  gradually  arrived  at  between  the  journey- 
men gilds  and  the  masters'  organizations.  Mas- 
ters, journeymen  and  apprentices  still  worked  side 
by  side  at  the  same  tasks,  sharing  the  same  labors 
and  exchanging  their  mutual  confidences  with  one 

12  E.  Levasscur,  "  Histoire  des  Classes  Ouvriires  en  France," 
II,  p.  92. 

13  Ashley,  Pesch,  Schoenlank,,  etc. 


230  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

another.  Hence  the  family  spirit  that  abided 
among  them.  So  long,  indeed,  as  the  principles 
of  their  Catholic  faith  strongly  influenced  both 
masters  and  men  it  was  possible  always  to  effect 
a  reconciliation  between  the  various  interests. 
Thus  at  Strassburg  in  1363  we  find  a  board  of 
arbitration  appointed  to  decide  all  disputes  be- 
tween masters  and  journeymen,  made  up  of  five 
members  from  each  of  these  two  classes. ^^  An- 
other arrangement,  made  by  the  Tailors'  Gild  at 
Aschaffenburg,  1527,  was  the  settlement  of  all 
difficulties  by  a  commission  appointed  jointly  by 
the  journeymen's  gild,  the  master  tailors  and  the 
archbishop. ^^ 

That  attempts  to  suppress  the  journeymen  or- 
ganizations must  have  been  frequent  in  the  begin- 
ning, when  their  economic  demands  were  first  set 
forth  in  opposition  to  their  masters,  we  might 
well  surmise.  Thus  in  London  a  proclamation 
was  issued  by  the  city  authorities  in  1383,  forbid- 
ding all  "  congregations,  covins  and  conspiracies  " 
on  the  part  of  the  workmen  for  fear  that  they 
would  seek  to  raise  their  wages.  Four  years  later 
three  journeymen  cordwainers,  in  the  same  city, 
combined  with  a  Friar  Preacher  to  found  a  fra- 
ternity. The  latter  was  to  bring  their  case  to 
the  notice  of  the  Pope,  but  the  men  were  seized 

^*  Schanz,  op.  at.,  p.  28. 

*'  The  Journeyman   Barber.     Mss.   of   gild   statutes   at  Bene- 
dictine Monastery,  St.  Meinrad,  Ind. 


THE    FIRST   MODERN    LABOR   CLASS        23 1 

and  confined  in  Newgate  prison  before  the  plan 
had  matured. ^^  It  shows  how  here,  as  at  all  other 
times,  the  Church  supported  the  workingman  in 
his  just  rights. 

In  Germany,  too,  the  Church  was  with  the 
journeymen.  The  monks  of  Niirnberg  excited 
the  ire  of  the  masters  by  permitting  the  secret 
meetings  of  the  former  to  be  held  in  their  mon- 
astery, while  the  Bishop  of  Eichstaat  championed 
the  cause  of  the  journeymen  belonging  to  the  va- 
rious cutlery  trades.  In  mentioning  such  in- 
stances, Schoenlank  with  an  unconscious  bias  con- 
cluded that  such  a  course  must  have  been  to  the 
Church's  interest.  But  alignment  with  the  rich 
and  powerful  masters  might  have  far  more  ad- 
vanced her  cause  in  a  temporal  manner.  She  was 
following  in  the  footsteps  of  her  Master.  So, 
too,  she  had  been  with  the  crafts  in  their  early 
trials.  It  was  with  the  help  of  the  Church  only 
that  journeymen  gilds  were  ever  formed  at  all. 

After  a  period  of  conflicts  or  strikes,  such  as 
noAv  often  took  place,  a  working  agreement  was 
usually  found,  or  the  journeymen  gilds,  as  in  Eng- 
land, were  gradually  brought  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  craft  gilds  and  various  arrangements 
were  made  to  deal  with  their  grievances.  Often 
they  simply  ceased  to  exist  and  in  not  a  few  in- 
stances the  journeymen  were  in  some  way  admitted 
into  the  masters'  gilds,  whose  wardens  or  other 

18  Riley,  "  Memorials,"  480,  495. 


232  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

officers  would  adjudge  their  case  when  brought 
to  the  notice  of  the  gild.  In  England  a  class  of 
journeymen,  as  Ashley  says,  became  a  permanent 
part  of  the  gild  system  and  remained  so  for  cen- 
turies.^'^ In  the  Council  of  Keyserberg,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  find  them  established  with  their 
own  courts  and  laws.  It  was  in  Germany  that 
the  journeymen  gilds  flourished  most  and  gave 
rise  to  an  entire  series  of  imperial  and  terri- 
torial decrees.^® 

As  a  typical  instance  of  the  claims  set  forth  by 
these  journeymen  we  may  take  the  following  list 
summarized  here  from  the  demands  made  by  the 
journeymen  tailors  of  Strassburg  towards  the  end 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  They  were  drawn  up  in 
connection  with  a  new  set  of  regulations  which  the 
master  tailors  were  seeking  to  obtain  from  the  city 
council.  The  journeymen  demanded:  (i)  the 
maintenance  of  the  customary  fourteen  days'  trial 
before  entering  upon  a  contract.  (2)  The  main- 
tenance of  the  fourteen  days'  wandering,  a  period 
of  time  within  which  the  journeymen  as  well  as 
the  masters  were  at  liberty  to  dissolve  their  con- 
tract. (3)  The  continuance  of  the  old  custom 
which  permitted  the  journeyman  to  provide  a  sub- 
stitute to  take  his  place  if  he  desired  to  leave  his 
occupation,  instead  of  being  subject  to  fine  and 
black-list.      (4)  The  abrogation  of  the  vague  rul- 

1^  W.  J.  Ashley,  op.  cit.,  II,  pp.  101-103. 
18 /H</.     Note  163. 


THE    FIRST    MODERN    LABOR    CLASS         233 

ing  that  journeymen  and  apprentices  must  pledge 
themselves  to  prevent  the  master's  losses  and  fur- 
ther his  gain,  since  this  might  give  an  opportunity 
for  the  latter  to  dismiss  his  journeymen  without 
pay.  (5)  The  clarifying  of  a  certain  clause  re- 
garding the  wage-contract.  (6)  The  righting  of 
the  disproportion  between  the  wage  and  the  high 
fine  inflicted  on  the  journeymen  for  absenting 
themselves  from  work  through  idleness.  (7) 
They  admit  that  they  are  to  do  no  independent 
work,  but  are  to  receive  all  work  through  their 
masters,  and  they  further  agree  with  the  latter 
that  no  journeyman  should  do  piece-work.  (8) 
They  finally  demand  greater  precision  in  regard 
to  another  wage  clause  which  arouses  their  shrewd 
suspicion. ^^ 

The  journeymen's  headquarters  were  the  inn, 
or  Herberge,  as  it  was  called  in  Germany,  where 
organization  had  progressed  exceptionally  in  this 
regard.  Both  masters  and  journeymen  cooper- 
ated in  this  institution.  Here  the  journeymen 
met,  consulted  and  held  their  feasts.  The  Her- 
hergsiater  found  accommodation  in  the  inn  for 
every  wandering  journeyman.  It  was  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.,  and  far  more  than  that,  of  the  later 
medieval  times.  Here  were  listed  the  names  of 
the  masters  in  need  of  men.  They  who  applied 
first  were  served  first,  but  precedence  was  given 
to  the  master  with  a  smaller  number  of  journey- 

i»  Schanz,  op.  cit.,  pp.  37-40. 


234  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

men,  so  that  the  old  gild  principles  were  still  kept 
in  view.  Beds,  too,  and  hospital  care  were  pro- 
vided here  for  the  sick,  while  traveling  journey- 
men who  could  not  find  employment  were  often 
paid  a  sum  sufficient  to  bring  them  to  the  next 
town.  The  fund  for  this  was  jointly  contributed 
by  the  masters  and  the  journeymen.  Similar  in- 
stitutions were  conducted  by  the  French  compag- 
nons.^^ 

Shelten,  or  reviling,  was  the  weapon  used  by  the 
journeymen  gilds.  It  was  a  systern  of  black-list- 
ing, by  which  a  gild  member  was  not  allowed  to 
work  for  a  master  or  with  a  journeyman  who  had 
been  "  reviled,"  until  they  had  atoned  for  their 
offense  and  been  restored  to  favor.  So,  too,  in 
case  of  strikes,  warning  was  sent  to  the  journey- 
men of  neighboring  towns  not  to  seek  employment 
in  the  strike  center  until  economic  peace  had  been 
restored.  These  strikes  were  never  directed 
against  the  existing  system,  nor  even  against  the 
hour's  of  work,  though  the  question  of  holidays 
was  raised  and  wages  at  times  became  a  very  vital 
issue.  Often  however  it  was  merely  a  matter  of 
gild  honor.  Such  was  the  famous  ten-years' 
strike  of  the  Colmar  baker  journeymen,  which  be- 
gan with  a  question  of  precedence  at  a  Corpus- 
Christi  procession,  and  ended  finally  in  a  complete 
victory  for  the  journeymen,  without  a  single  issue 
of   economics  being   raised   throughout   all   this 

20Brentano,  etc 


THE    FIRST   MODERN    LABOR    CLASS         235 

period.  It  had  lasted  from  1495  to  1505. 
Hence  the  reason  for  admitting  under  such  cir- 
cumstances Brentano's  happy  description  of  these 
disagreements  in  early  Catholic  times  as  "  family 
disputes  between  parents  and  children." 

This  condition  can  best  be  understood  by  noting 
the  fact  that  although  abuses  existed,  yet  gild  reg- 
ulations were  no  less  severe  in  regard  to  masters 
than  to  servants.  If  the  latter  were  to  conduct 
themselves  "  properly  "  and  respectfully,  the  for- 
mer too  were  strictly  punished  by  their  own  gild 
authorities  if  they  held  back  the  wages  of  their 
men.  These  wages  were  determined,  in  England, 
by  the  gild  or  its  wardens  in  a  manner  which,  Ash- 
ley remarks,  "  was  fair  in  itself  in  so  far  as  the 
master's  own  remuneration  was  fixed  by  legisla- 
tive or  civic  ordinance." 

The  journeymen  gilds,  in  fine,  were,  until  the 
Reformation,  religious  societies,  and  indeed  re- 
mained such  in  Catholic  countries.  They  were 
established  "  in  honor  of  Almighty  God,  His 
Blessed  Mother  Mary  and  all  the  Saints  "  or  with 
some  similar  sacred  dedication.  They  created 
funds  for  the  lighting  of  candles  before  the  altars 
on  Feast  Days  and  other  occasions.  They  pro- 
vided Masses  for  their  dead  comrades  and  sol- 
emnly attended  the  funeral  services.  They  do- 
nated precious  vestments,  chalices  and  missals,  and 
even  built  their  own  chapel,  as  did  the  bakers' 
journeymen  at  Strassburg  with  the  aid  of  liberal 


236  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

donations  given  them.  Special  vaults  were  set 
aside  for  their  dead  in  church  or  monastery,  as 
in  Freiburg  and  Frankfurt.  Nor,  as  we  have 
seen,  was  Christian  charity  neglected.  They  pro- 
vided beds  for  the  sick  in  their  own  inns  or  founded 
funds  for  this  purpose  in  some  established  hospi- 
tal. Thus  in  1524  the  Schaffhausen  gild  of  jour- 
neymen smiths  gave  its  entire  capital  to  the  Seel- 
haus  that  every  sick  journeyman  might  there  be 
cared  for  until  he  was  restored  to  health.  A  per- 
manent official  was  appointed  to  supervise  this  task. 
At  times  the  masters'  gild  itself  provided  for  such 
needs.  "  If  any  serving  man  of  the  said  trade," 
reads  an  ordinance  of  the  Braelers'  Gild,  "  who 
has  behaved  himself  well  and  loyally  towards  his 
masters  whom  he  served,  shall  fall  sick  or  be  un- 
able to  help  or  maintain  himself,  he  shall  be  found 
by  the  good  folks  of  the  said  trade  until  he  shall 
have  recovered  and  be  able  to  maintain  him- 
self." ^^  At  times  contributions  were  made  by 
masters  and  journeymen  to  a  common  foundation 
that  was  equivalent  to  a  social  insurance  fund  for 
sick  and  disabled  journeymen.  Thus  everywhere 
the  Catholic  creed  of  faith  and  works  was  applied 
in  action  so  far  as  the  influence  of  the  Church 
extended. 

21  Riley,  "  Memorials,"  277. 


C  H  AFTER   XXIII 

REVALUATION  OF  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 

AMONG  the  most  hopeful  signs  of  our 
time  is  the  changed  attitude  regarding 
the  Middle  Ages.  This  was  brought 
about  by  three  causes.  First  came  the  fail- 
ure  of  the  capitalistic  system.  Concentrating 
the  ownership  of  the  means  of  production 
in  the  hands  of  the  few  it  deprived  the  mil- 
lions of  any  voice,  or  share  in  the  regulation  of 
what  most  vitally  concerned  them.  Against  the 
arbitrary  use  of  this  tremendous  power  the  minds 
of  men  naturally  revolted  and  they  reverted  to 
the  days  preceding  the  great  Industrial  Revolution 
and  the  Reformation.  Here,  in  the  Catholic 
Middle  Ages,  they  found  realized,  for  the  first 
and  last  time  in  history,  the  ideals  of  industrial 
democracy  which  to  them  were  of  far  greater  im- 
portance than  any  outward  forms  of  government 
or  mere  national  prosperity  that  left  their  own 
lives  unaffected.  "  To-day,"  E.  T.  Raymond 
wrote  in  Everyman,  "  the  most  earnest  minds  are 
looking  to  a  revival  of  the  gild  system  as  the  only 
alternative  to  a  new  servile  State." 

237 


238  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

But  the  thunder  of  the  cannons,  too,  in  the 
great  World  War  helped  to  recall  the  fact,  which 
had  so  long  been  studiously  overlooked,  that  the 
highest  achievements  of  human  skill  and  intellect 
had  after  all  been  accomplished  in  the  ages  once 
accounted  "  dark";  the  ages  which  produced  the 
world's  most  wonderful  art  and  architecture,  its 
greatest  poetry  and  richest  thought;  the  ages  of 
which  Shakespeare  was  but  the  lavish  heir,  spend- 
ing prodigally  the  legacy  whose  full  greatness  had 
been  attained  in  Dante  and  the  Angelic  Doctor, 
in  Raphael  and  Michelangelo,  in  the  beauty  of 
Rheims  Cathedral  and  the  stateliness  of  Notre 
Dame.     To  quote  Ralph  Adams  Cram: 

It  has  needed  this  war  to  drive  men  back  and  beyond  the  form 
to  the  matter  itself,  and  to  give  them  some  realization  of  the  sin- 
gular force  and  potency  and  righteousness  of  an  epoch  which 
begins  now  to  show  itself  as  the  best  man  has  ever  created,  and 
one  as  well  that  contains  within  itself  the  solution  of  our 
manifold  and  tragical  difficulties,  and  in  fact  the  model  where- 
upon we  must  rebuild  the  fabric  of  a  destroyed  culture  and 
civilization.^ 

*'  The  great  productive  scholars  of  the  present 
day,"  wrote  Lane  Cooper  In  the  Nation  for  June 
7,  19 19,  "  are  medievalists." 

Comparable  entirely  with  the  supreme  triumphs 
of  art  and  architecture,  was  the  social  wisdom 
displayed  in  the  medieval  gilds  at  their  highest 
stages  of  perfection.     The  brush  of  a  Titian  or 

1  "  The  Substance  of  Gothic,"  Preface,  pp.  viii,  ix. 


REVALUATION   OF   THE    MIDDLE   AGES      239 

the  pen  of  the  great  Florentine  himself  never  gave 
expression  to  a  deeper  knowledge  of  human  na- 
ture than  we  find  reflected  in  these  masterpieces 
of  social  thought  and  experience,  transfused  with 
profound  religious  conviction  and  touched  with 
an  artistry  of  the  spirit  that  singer  and  painter 
have  never  surpassed. 

Lastly  there  has  taken  place  a  revival  of  his- 
toric knowledge.  To  the  long-continued  school- 
boy repetition  and  the  learned-by-rote  recitation 
of  half  truths  and  entire  falsehoods  regarding  the 
Middle  Ages,  on  the  part  even  of  otherwise  most 
reputable  authorities,  there  succeeded  a  more  di- 
rect and  sympathetic  study.  Men  gradually  began 
to  drop  the  misnomer  "  dark  "  applied  to  those 
ages  of  brilliant  thought  and  magnificent  achieve- 
ment. It  was  an  epithet  best  suited  to  qualify  the 
mind  of  the  writer  who  still  so  sadly  misused  it. 
Who  knows  but  at  some  future  period  of  history 
men  may  suggest  for  our  own  materialistic  cen- 
turies the  title  once  so  unjustly  applied  to  those 
ages  of  vigorous  youth  and  lofty  aspiration.  To 
those  times  the  world  now  wisely  reverts  for  lesson 
and  inspiration.  In  the  third  of  his  articles  on 
"  Prospects  in  English  Literature,"  published  in 
the  London  Athenaum,  "  Muezzin "  thus  pic- 
tured the  modern  situation  as  it  was  to  be  more 
fully  revealed  in  the  aftermath  of  the  Great  War: 

To-day   it   is   the   Middle   Ages   that  claim   our   interest   and 
understanding,  for  there  are  signs  everywhere  that  the  era  in- 


240  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

augurated  by  humanism  and  Protestantism,  and  carried  forward 
on  the  two  great  tidal  waves  of  industrialism  and  the  French 
Revolution,  is  already  passing  away.  We  have  gained  much 
in  the  way  of  intellectual  freedom,  political  privileges,  and  the 
creature  comforts  from  these  changes;  but  it  is  beginning  to  be 
realized  that  we  have  sold  a  large  measure  of  our  birthright 
for  this  appetizing  mess  of  pottage.  Above  all  the  temple  of 
the  human  spirit  lies  in  ruins,  its  altars  are  overthrown,  and 
the  wild  asses  pasture  undisturbed  within  its  walls.  And 
though,  as  we  must,  we  bring  all  the  appliances  of  a  scientific 
civilization  and  the  fruits  of  accumulated  knowledge  to  assist 
us  in  the  task  of  reconstruction,  we  can  learn  much  from  the 
men  of  the  Middle  Ages,  for  they  were  supreme  architects  in 
this  manner  of  building,  and  the  temple  they  set  up  lasted  a 
thousand  years.^ 

With  a  new  sense  of  freedom,  after  the  passing 
of  the  abhorrent  Reformation  doctrine  of  the  Di- 
vine right  of  kings,  against  which  the  voice  of  the 
Church  had  thundered  through  the  centuries,  men 
can  now  better  realize  her  services  to  humanity  as 
the  champion  in  all  times  of  the  poor  and  disin- 
herited. Referring  to  Cardinal  Mercier  the  New 
York  Times  believed  that  it  could  pay  him  no 
higher  compliment  than  simply  to  pronounce  him 
worthy  of  the  great  tradition  of  his  Church,  which 
was  the  only  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages.  "  This 
valiant  priest,"  it  wrote,  "  recalls  the  best  things 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  when  the  Church  never  feared 
to  speak  out,  at  any  cost  or  danger,  in  behalf  of 
the  oppressed."      (April  20,  1919.) 

We  recall  the  glowing  passage  in  President 
Wilson's  '*  The  New  Freedom,"   describing  the 

«May,  1917,  p.  234. 


REVALUATION   OF   THE    MIDDLE    AGES      24 1 

Catholic  Church  as  the  perennial  fountain-source 
of  the  spirit  of  freedom  and  democracy  through- 
out the  Middle  Ages.  It  was  this  same  spirit 
which  she  infused  into  the  gilds,  wherever  they 
remained  responsive  to  her  teachings  and  direc- 
tion. Men  even  of  such  extreme  views  as  Hynd- 
man,  in  his  '*  Historic  Basis  of  Socialism  in  Eng- 
land," and  the  Russian  anarchist  writer,  Kropot- 
kin,  in  his  "  Mutual  Aid  a  Factor  of  Evolution," 
grow  eloquent  when  discoursing  upon  the  Middle 
Ages.  Without  understanding  the  inwardness  of 
the  true  Catholic  devotion  to  Mary,  which  never 
confuses  her  with  Divinity  nor  hopes  for  pardon 
where  sin  is  unatoned  and  unrepented,  Mr.  Henry 
Adams  passes  into  an  ecstasy  of  admiration  in  his 
*'  Mont-Saint-Michel  and  Chartres."  Almost  at 
random  Ralph  Adams  Cram  ^  covers  page  after 
page  with  references  to  modern  works  filled  with 
the  deepest  appreciation  of  medievalism.  The  au- 
thors, it  is  true,  are  not  seldom  at  fault  in  their  in- 
terpretations owing  to  the  want  of  that  Catholic 
Faith  which  holds  the  key  to  its  own  past,  and  is 
in  all  its  essence  the  same  to-day,  as  in  the  days  of 
Dante  or  the  days  of  the  inspired  writers  of  the 
books  of  the  New  Testament,  while  always  ad- 
mirably adapted  to  every  change  of  social  life  the 
centuries  may  bring. 

Medievalism  is  the  study  of   a  lifetime,  for  it  is  that  great 
3  "  The  Substance  of  Gothic,"  xiii-xviii. 


242  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

cycle  of  five  centuries  wherein  Christianity  created  for  itself  a 
world  as  nearly  as  possible  made  in  its  own  image,  a  world 
that  in  spite  of  the  wars  and  desecrations,  the  ignorance  and 
the  barbarism  and  the  "  restorations  "  of  modernism  has  left  us 
monuments  and  records  and  traditions  of  a  power  and  beauty 
and  nobility  without  parallel  in  history.* 

It  is  with  the  democracy  of  the  Catholic  gilds  of 
these  ages  that  we  are  particularly  concerned,  and 
it  is  interesting  to  notice  how  this  is  recognized 
to  have  extended  even  into  the  field  of  education. 
Besides  charity  schools,  like  our  modern  parochial 
schools,  and  largely  supported  by  the  gilds,  there 
were  also  gild  schools  proper.  Our  word  "  uni- 
versity "  itself,  as  the  Columbia  University  pro- 
fessor, James  Harvey  Robinson,  explains,  is 
merely  a  medieval  synonym  for  gild: 

Before  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  the  teachers  had  be- 
come so  numerous  in  Paris  that  they  formed  a  union,  or  gild, 
for  the  advancement  of  their  interests.  This  union  of  profes- 
sors was  called  by  the  usual  name  for  corporations  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  universitas ;  hence  our  word,  university.  The 
King  and  the  Pope  both  favored  the  university  and  granted  the 
teachers  and  students  many  of  the  privileges  of  the  clergy.^ 

So  during  the  following  centuries  numerous  uni- 
versities sprang  up  in  France,  Italy  and  Spain. 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  were  founded  and  great 
centers  of  learning  flourished  everywhere.  Uni- 
versity life  attained  a  prominence  it  has  never 
equaled  since.     Oxford  alone  is  said  to  have  num- 

*lbid. 

'  "  Medieval  and  Modern  Times,"  p.  251. 


REVALUATION   OF   THE    MIDDLE   AGES      243 

bered  about  10,000  students.  Other  universities 
are  claimed  to  have  numbered  even  20,000  and 
30,000  students.  "  Monasteries,"  says  Professor 
Laurie,  "  regularly  sent  boys  of  thirteen  and  four- 
teen to  university  seats.  A  Papal  instruction  of 
1335  required  every  Benedictine  and  Augustinian 
community  to  send  boys  to  the  university  in  the 
proportion  of  one  in  twenty  of  their  residents."  ® 
Traveling  scholars,  as  the  writer  adds,  were  ac- 
commodated gratuitously,  in  the  houses  of  priests 
or  monastery  hospitals,  and  even  local  subscrip- 
tions were  offered  to  help  them  on  their  way. 
Here  was  a  true  democracy  of  learning.  Higher 
education  was  not  confined  to  the  clergy  except 
only  when  the  energy  of  the  Church  was  neces- 
sarily absorbed  in  the  teaching  of  the  very  rudi- 
ments of  civilization  and  of  the  first  principles  of 
religious  life  to  the  races  emerging  from  savagery. 
In  the  establishment  of  these  early  seats  of 
learning  the  influence  of  the  gilds  was  predom- 
inant. Regarding  the  origin  of  the  three  great 
universities  at  Paris,  Oxford  and  Bologna,  Father 
Cuthbert  is  thus  quoted  in  the  London  Tablet: 

They  started  without  charters  or  even  buildings  of  their  own, 
and  were  at  first  simply  a  group  who  formed  themselves  into 
a  closed  gild,  and  borrowed  private  houses,  churches  or  public 
halls.  Both  scholars  and  masters  were  subject  to  gild  authority. 
At  Bologna  it  was  a  Scholars'  Gild  which  ruled  and  appointed 
the  authority  to  which  the  masters  were  responsible ;  but  even- 
tually the  masters  allied  themselves  with  the  town  authorities, 

'  "  The  Rise  and  Early  Constitution  of  the  University." 


244  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

and  so  the  university  became  subject  to  the  civic  power.  At 
Paris  and  Oxford  the  Masters'  Gild  elected  the  Council  and 
officials  who  governed  the  universities.  Later  on  the  two  gilds 
combined,  that  is  the  gild  included  both  scholars  and  masters.^ 

Thus  these  early  Catholic  universities  were  in 
the  strictest  sense  popular  and  democratic  institu- 
tions. Later  it  became  the  fashion  to  ask  for  a 
Papal  or  a  royal  charter.  "  That  given  to  Oxford 
in  12 14  by  the  Legate  Otho  is  probably  the  earli- 
est." These  facts  are  now  fully  acknowledged 
by  non-Catholic  authorities  and  even  the  London 
Times  was  able  to  launch  forth  upon  a  eulogy  of 
the  Papacy  in  the  work  of  elementary  and  higher 
education  during  the  entire  period  of  the  Middle 
Ages: 

The  organization  and  control  of  the  universities  of  Europe 
was  an  achievement  that  is  a  deathless  laurel  in  the  Papal 
crown.  In  educational  matters  there  was  universal  confidence 
in  the  judgment  and  justice  of  the  Papacy  from  the  days  of 
Eugenius  II  in  the  ninth  century  to  the  days  of  the  Counter- 
Reformation  in  the  sixteenth. 

But  it  was  not  only  in  university  matters  that  the  educational 
activity  of  the  Papacy  was  so  remarkable.  Whether  we  regard 
Canon  34  of  the  canons  promulgated  at  the  Concilium  Romanum 
in  826,  or  the  decrees  of  the  Third  Lateran  Council  in  11 79,  of 
the  Fourth  Lateran  Council  in  1215,  and  of  other  Councils,  such 
as  that  of  Vienna  in  1311,  we  always  find  that  the  medieval 
Church  is  seeking  to  advance  learning  of  all  grades,  and  to 
coordinate  educational  effort  of  all  kinds.  And  the  efforts  of 
the  Central  Conference  were  amply  supplemented  by  what  were, 
in  effect,  diocesan  conferences.^ 

''  May  3,  i9r<). 

•Educational  Supplement,  Jan.  2,  1919. 


REVALUATION    OF   THE    MIDDLE   AGES      245 

The  decree  of  the  Third  Lateran  Council,  in 
1 179,  to  which  the  London  Times  refers  is  itself 
a  complete  refutation  of  the  calumnies  that, 
through  ignorance,  had  long  been  spread  against 
the  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages.     It  reads: 

Since  the  Church  of  God,  like  a  good  mother,  is  bound  to 
provide  so  that  the  poor  who  can  get  no  help  from  the  wealth 
of  parents  should  not  be  deprived  of  the  opportunity  of  learn- 
ing and  making  progress  in  letters,  let  a  complete  benefice  be 
assigned  in  every  cathedral  church  to  a  schoolmaster,  who  will 
teach  clerics  and  poor  scholars  for  nothing. 

The  Fourth  Lateran  Council  extended  this  de- 
cree to  all  countries.  By  this  a  perfect  system 
of  free  public  schools  was  ordained.  The  democ- 
racy of  learning  as  of  industry  was  the  natural 
result  of  the  genuinely  democratic  spirit  of  the 
Catholic  Church  which  has  never  changed  since, 
the  Galilean  fisherman  was  made  the  Rock  on 
which  Christ  constructed  it:  "Thou  art  Peter, 
and  on  this  rock  I  will  build  my  church."  The 
seal  of  the  Popes  is  the  seal  of  the  Fisherman. 

Our  revaluation  of  the  Middle  Ages  is  thus 
steadily  progressing  and  entering  into  the  final 
stage  of  popularization  through  the  daily  press. 
Particularly  in  the  field  of  sociology  will  these 
ages  be  of  constantly  increasing  interest  and  pro- 
foundly practical  instruction  for  our  times.  That 
the  common  workingman  was  then  better  provided 
for  than  in  the  days  when  capitalism  reached  its 
climax  before  the  outbreak  of  the  World  War,  is 


246  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

now  universally  acknowledged  by  all  who  may  be 
trusted  to  speak  with  authority  upon  this  question. 
The  advantages  of  labor  were  all  secured  to  it 
through  the  potent  influence  of  the  gilds,  but  in 
particular  of  the  craft  gilds  as  based  on  the  re- 
ligious principles  of  the  Catholic  Church  with 
which  they  were  integrally  connected.  Separated 
from  her,  they  were  left  as  a  body  reft  of  the 
soul,  lifeless,  inefficient,  passing  slowly  into  inevita- 
ble decay.  With  their  religious  spirit  intact  they 
might  have  confidently  faced  the  period  of  eco- 
nomic reconstruction.  This  too  we  find  admitted 
without  hesitation. 

It  was  due  to  the  struggle  of  the  craft  gilds 
alone,  as  was  shown  in  a  previous  chapter,  that  the 
world  was  not  sunk  into  a  state  of  uncontrolled 
capitalism  half  a  millennium  before  the  coming  of 
the  Industrial  Revolution.  Through  the  struggle 
of  the  gildsmen  the  nascent  cities,  beginning  with 
the  eleventh  century,  won  their  enfranchisement 
from  the  feudal  lords  who  then  had  too  often  out- 
lasted their  usefulness.  In  the  same  way  they 
overcame  the  formidable  power  of  the  merchant 
corporations  that  threatened  to  establish  their  oli- 
garchy of  wealth.  So  too,  through  the  efforts  of 
the  gilds  the  first  modern  Christian  democracies 
were  formed.  Many  of  the  medieval  cities  grew 
into  independent  States.  In  Italy  particularly, 
sprang  up  those  marvelous  Catholic  republics,  like 
Genoa,  Lucca,  Pisa,  and  Florence. 


REVALUATION    OF   THE    MIDDLE    AGES      247 

Thus,  in  the  latter  city,  the  consules  of  the  mer- 
chant gilds  first  appear  in  11 82  and  from  this  time 
on  no  important  transaction  takes  place  without 
their  cooperation.  In  Pisa,  besides  three  mer- 
chant gilds,  there  existed  after  about  1260  a  union 
of  seven  artes  or  trade  gilds  consisting  respectively 
of  such  different  elements  as  notaries,  smiths,  and 
wine  dealers.  They  were  governed  by  two  capi- 
tanei  chosen  in  turn  from  different  gilds  and  seven 
other  officers,  one  from  each  gild.  The  widest 
autonomy  -was  enjoyed  by  each  organization." 

Oligarchy  and  class-rule,  it  is  true,  began  again 
in  proportion  as  the  gilds  themselves  deteriorated 
in  their  spirit  of  religion  and  democracy,  or  their 
influence  declined,  but  their  results  lived  on  in  the 
magnificent  efflorescence  of  art  stimulated  through 
the  powerful  incentives  offered  by  the  Church. 
These  are  some  of  the  facts  that  now  again  are  re- 
ceiving their  due  valuation. 

•  Alfred  Doran,  "  EntvAckelung  und  Organisation  der  Floren- 
tiner  Ziinfte  im  IS-  und  14.  Jahrhundert." 


CHAPTER     XXIV 

CIVIC  PAGEANTS  AND  PLAYS 

WE  have  within  recent  years  witnessed 
many  revivals  of  medievalism  in  art  and 
literature.  In  England  Ruskin  stood 
as  the  leader  of  this  great  movement.  He  had 
caught  as  none  other  the  external  beauty  and 
splendor  of  the  Middle  Ages.  As  he  came  to 
know  them  better  he  likewise  approached  more 
closely  to  a  love  and  veneration  of  the  religion 
that  has  been  the  inspiration  of  everything  noblest 
in  life  and  highest  in  art.  At  a  greater  distance 
from  the  shrine  stood  the  modern  Pre-Raphaelite 
school  of  artists.  They  might  indeed  copy  the 
outward  form  of  the  art  of  a  Fra  Angelico,  but 
could  not  feel  the  rapture  that  inspired  it.  They 
lacked  the  faith  and  the  love.  Trammeled  by 
conventions  and  remote  from  human  sympathies, 
they  could  not  stir  the  hearts  of  men.  In  our  own 
day  we  are  again  approaching  medievalism,  but  in 
another  way.  We  have  caught,  however  faintly 
and  vaguely,  what  Ruskin  had  already  sought  to 
teach  the  world,  the  spirit  of  cooperation.  It  ex- 
presses itself  in  countless,  often  sadly  misleading, 
ways,  in  our  economic  life.  But  again  men  fail 
to  understand  that  there  can  be  no  assurance  of  a 

248 


CIVIC    PAGEANTS   AND   PLAYS  249 

true  and  lasting  universal  brotherhood  without  a 
universal  faith. 

Among  the  latest  revivals  of  medievalism  are 
the  civic  pageant  and  drama.  The  reproduction 
of  *'  Everyman,"  in  spite  of  its  modern  surround- 
ings and  professional  actors,  faintly  suggested  the 
force  and  influence  of  the  Catholic  morality  plays. 
Intended  not  for  a  select  few,  but  for  the  religious 
instruction  of  all  the  people,  such  plays  were  truly 
popular  in  their  nature.  More  ambitious  were  the 
first  modern  attempts  once  more  to  suggest  by 
mammoth  performances  the  medieval  idea  of  co- 
operation in  art.  Perhaps  most  successful  in  this 
direction  was  the  magnificent  Civic  Pageant  and 
Masque  of  St.  Louis.  Manifestly,  however,  it 
is  impossible  to  reproduce  artificially  in  our  own 
times  the  true  spirit  of  cooperation  as  it  was  un- 
derstood in  the  days  when  the  great  minsters 
were  erected,  the  work  of  generations  of  humble 
artisans.  In  spite  of  private  interests  there  was 
always  one  center  of  Truth  in  which  all  were 
united.  Every  popular  ceremony  was  full  of 
beauty  and  symbolism,  because  religion  had  given 
a  higher  meaning  to  life.  As  a  characteristic  ex- 
ample of  a  purely  civic  nature  we  may  here  refer 
to  the  welcome  given  to  King  Henry  at  Dover  in 
1432.  The  scene  is  pictured  for  us  by  Stow 
and  the  poet  Lydgate.  It  is  at  once  simple  and 
artistic,  popular  and  religious.^ 

*  Herbert,  "  Livery  Companies  of  London,"  I,  93  ff. 


250  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

Robed  in  gowns  of  scarlet  and  with  hoods  of 
red  the  aldermen  are  described  riding  out  to  meet 
their  monarch,  who  had  been  crowned  King  of 
France.  At  their  head  was  the  mayor,  in  crim- 
son velvet,  with  a  furred  hat  of  velvet,  a  girdle 
of  gold  about  his  waist  and  a  "  jewel  "  of  gold 
hung  about  his  neck.  In  attendance  upon  him, 
mounted  on  great  coursers,  rode  the  huntsmen, 
clad  in  suits  of  red  bespangled  with  silver.  Then 
followed  in  procession  the  entire  commonalty  of 
the  city,  all  in  white  gowns  and  scarlet  hoods,  with 
"  sundry  devyses  embrowdyd  richly."  Their  gar- 
ments of  white  symbolized  the  purity  of  their  loy- 
alty, while  the  embroideries  evidently  suggested 
the  gilds  to  which  they  belonged.  To  lend  still 
greater  variety,  the  Merchant  Strangers,  the  Gen- 
oese and  Florentines,  and  the  "  Easterlings,"  as 
the  German  Hanse  Merchants  were  called,  all 
took  part,  "  clad  in  there  manere."  The  poet 
Lydgate  thus  pictures  the  scene  in  the  quaint  Eng- 
lish of  his  day : 

The  clothing  was  of  colour  full  covenable: 

The  noble  mair  clad  in  red  velvet, 

The  shricves,  the  aldermen,  full  notable, 

In  furryd  clokes,  the  colour  of  scarlett; 

In  stately  wyse  whanne  they  were  met, 

Ich  one  were  wel  horsyd,  and  made  no  delay, 

But  with  there  mair  rood  forth  on  there  way. 

The  citezens  ich  on  of  the  citee, 

In  their  entent  that  they  were  pure  and  clene: 


CIVIC    PAGEANTS  AND   PLAYS  25 1 

Ches  them  of  whit  a  ful  faire  lyvere,^ 

In  every  craft,  as  it  was  wel  sene, 

To  shewe  the  trowthc  that  they  dedc  mene ' 

Toward  the  kyng,  hadde  mad  them  feithfully 

In  sundry  devyses  embrowdyd  richely. 

What  a  lavishness  and  wealth  of  color,  what  a 
freshness  and  delight  of  life,  as  compared  with 
our  own  modern  drabness !  Something  of  the 
beauty  of  the  faith  of  these  old  gildsmen  was  re- 
flected even  in  their  daily  intercourse.  The  mayor 
on  this  occasion  was  a  grocer  by  profession. 
What  more  appropriate,  therefore,  than  that  the 
scenic  display  which  crowned  the  festivity  should 
represent  a  grove  of  foreign  fruits: 

Oranges,  almondys  and  the  pomegranade, 
Lymons,  dates,  there  colours  fresh  and  glade, 
Pypyns,  quynces,  chandrellys  to  disport. 
And  the  pom  cedre,  corageous  to  recomfort; 
Eke  othere  fruites,  whiche  that  more  comown  be, 
Quenyngges,  peches,  costardes,  and  wardens. 
And  others  manye  ful  faire  and  frcshc  to  se. 

In  the  midst  of  this  new  Garden  of  Eden  were 
three  wells,  in  allusion  to  the  mayor's  name,  who 
chanced  to  be  called  Wells.  But  the  true  Scrip- 
tural joyousness  of  these  days  of  Catholic  merri- 
ment displayed  itself  when  at  the  King's  approach 
the  waters,  by  some  clever  mechanical  device,  sud- 
denly disappeared  and  all  the  three  wells  were 
filled    with    purest    wine,    recalling    our    Lord's 

2  /.  e.,  "  Chose  them  of  white,  etc." 
""Did  mean." 


252  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

miracle  at  the  wedding  feast  of  Cana,  And  there, 
prepared  to  serve  the  guests,  stood  the  three  al- 
legorical personages:  Mercy,  Grace  and  Pity. 
There,  too,  were  the  ancient  patriarchs,  Enoch  and 
Elias,  "  full  circumspect  and  wys,"  with  "  lokkes 
hore,"  to  offer  prayers  for  the  King  and  call  down 
God's  blessings  on  his  reign :  "  In  enemyes 
handes  that  he  nevere  falle." 

In  his  "  Livery  Companies  of  England,"  pub- 
lished in  1837,  William  Herbert  says: 

What  confers  an  additional  interest  on  the  shows  of  this 
period  is,  that  almost  all  the  ceremonies  of  the  companies,  and 
indeed  every  public  act,  was  then  more  or  less  mixed  up  with 
the  Catholic  religion;  a  religion  which,  bringing  with  it  a 
peculiar  splendor  of  worship,  shed  over  them  a  luster  which 
we  find  but  faintly  reflected  on  its  disuse.^ 

How  religion  in  its  most  serious  form  could  be 
happily  combined  with  popular  amusement  is  best 
seen  in  the  grand  pageants  and  plays  of  these 
times.  Our  modern  theater  with  its  garish  lights, 
its  tremulous  music  and  feverish  passion,  can  give 
no  conception  of  the  popular  performances  of  the 
simple  craftsmen,  which  dealt  with  the  intense 
realities  of  life  and  death,  and  with  the  august 
sanctities  of  religion.  Even  the  banterings  and 
buffooneries,  before  the  days  of  the  decline,  were 
conceived  in  the  spirit  of  childish  innocence  and 
glee,  telling  of  simple  trust  in  the  mercy  and  love 
of  an  Almighty  Father.     Only  when  the  spirit  of 

*Vol.  I,  p.  66. 


CIVIC    PAGEANTS   AND   PLAYS  253 

religion  itself  had  been  weakened  among  the  peo- 
ple did  these  performances  degenerate  until  they 
finally  passed  away.  Most  famous  among  the  few 
survivals  was  the  decennial  play  of  Oberammer- 
gau,  which  has  remained  the  wonder  and  despair 
of  the  world's  greatest  artists. 

To  show  how  truly  popular  these  performances 
were,  it  will  suffice  to  point  to  the  gild  statutes  of 
a  single  English  town,  Newcastle-on-Tyne.  Ap- 
parently every  trade  union  within  its  walls  per- 
formed its  public  play  on  Corpus  Christi  Day. 
Thus  the  gild  of  Barber-Chirurgeons,  after  going 
in  procession  arrayed  in  their  liveries,  were  after- 
wards to  play  at  their  own  expense  "  The  Bap- 
tizing of  Christ."  Similarly  the  Craft  of  Weav- 
ers in  the  same  city  ordained  that  its  members 
must  corporately  participate  in  the  procession  and 
must  play  their  play  and  pageant  of  "  The  Bear- 
ing of  the  Cross."  The  Slaters,  according  to  an 
ordinance  of  145 1  were  to  give  their  own  play, 
specified  at  a  later  date,  when  they  had  united 
into  one  gild  with  the  Bricklayers,  as  "  The  Offer- 
ing of  Isaac  by  Abraham."  The  Millers  of  the 
same  town  were  enjoined  to  enact  "  The  Deliver- 
ance of  the  Children  of  Israel  out  of  the  Thral- 
dom, Bondage  and  Servitude  of  King  Pharao." 
The  House  Carpenters,,  then  known  as  JVrightSf 
played  "  The  Burial  of  Christ,"  and  the  Masons, 
"  The  Burial  of  our  Lady  Saint  Mary  the  Vir- 
gin."    Many  of  these  ordinances,  it  may  be  men- 


254  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

tioned,  refer  to  the  sixteenth  century,  showing  how 
the  religious  spirit  had  still  survived  in  the  hearts 
of  the  people. 

All  the  crafts  annually  combined  for  the  solemn 
Corpus  Christi  procession.  This  custom  was  ev- 
erywhere observed  in  all  cities  of  Christendom, 
and  the  pageants  and  processions  of  Corpus 
Christi  were  the  great  civic  as  well  as  religious 
event  of  the  year.  Nothing  in  modern  times  can 
equal  the  true  social  spirit  which  animated  these 
splendid  demonstrations  of  Christian  faith  and 
universal  brotherhood.  Here  indeed  all  were 
united  in  a  common  membership  with  Christ,  their 
Head.  He  Himself  was  present  in  their  midst, 
as  of  old  among  His  Apostles  when  the  sacred 
words,  daily  spoken  in  the  Holy  Mass,  were  for 
the  first  time  uttered  and  that  mystery  enacted 
which  He  commanded  should  be  repeated  to  the 
end  of  time  by  the  successors  of  His  chosen 
Twelve:  "Taking  bread,  he  gave  thanks,  and 
brake;  and  gave  to  them,  saying:  This  is  my 
body,  which  is  given  for  you.  Do  this  for  a  com- 
memoration of  me."  ^  The  meaning  of  those 
words  was  clear.  The  mystery  they  contained 
was  as  infinitely  condescending  as  it  was  sublime. 
No  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  day  set  aside  for 
its  honor  should  have  become  the  occasion  of  civic 
demonstrations  such  as  will  never  again  be  wit- 
nessed until  men  are  once  more  united  in  the  one 

"^  Luke  zxii :  19.     (Douay.) 


CIVIC    PAGEANTS   AND    PLAYS  255 

true  Faith  which  alone  can  satisfy  their  longings. 
To  make  plain  the  civic  nature  of  these  events 
we  need  only  instance  the  Corpus  Christi  proces- 
sion held  at  York.  In  that  single  city  in  the  year 
141 5,  ninety-six  gilds  marched  with  their  insignia 
and  fifty-four  pageants  were  presented  in  the  pro- 
cession. As  early  as  1325  we  find,  in  fact,  a  spe- 
cial Corpus  Christi  Gild  which  had  developed  out 
of  a  former  merchant  gild  whose  economic  use- 
fulness had  evidently  ceased  with  the  coming  of 
the  craft  gilds.  Not  the  laity  only,  but  the  priors 
of  two  religious  houses  and  all  the  parish  priests 
were  enrolled  in  its  membersnip.  The  main  ob- 
ject of  the  gild  was  to  make  provision  for  the 
Corpus  Christi  procession  in  which  the  priests 
marched  with  the  craft  gilds.  The  latter  carried 
candles,  unfolded  their  banners  and  displayed  their 
marvelous  pageants,  after  which  they  regaled 
themselves  in  good  Scriptural  fashion.®  What 
could  be  more  closely  related  than  popular  hap- 
piness and  true  religion,  whether  we  behold 
David  dancing  before  the  Ark  or  Christ  among 
the  wedding  guests.     As  Lowell  beautifully  says: 

This  is  what  the  Roman  Church  does  for  religion,  feeding 
the  soul  not  with  the  essential  religious  sentiment,  not  with  a 
drop  or  two  of  the  tincture  of  worship,  but  making  us  feel  one 
by  one  all  those  original  elements  of  which  worship  is  com- 
posed; not  bringing  the  end  to  us  but  making  us  pass  over  and 
feel  beneath  our  feet  all  the  golden  rounds  of  the  ladder  by 

«  Gross,  "The  Gild  Merchant,"  I,  p.  i6z. 


256  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

which  the  climbing  generations  have  reached  that  end;  not 
handing  us  drily  a  dead  and  extinguished  Q.  E.  D.,  but  letting 
it  declare  itself  by  the  glory  with  which  it  interfuses  the  incense- 
clouds  of  wonder  and  aspiration  and  beauty  in  which  it  is 
veiled.  The  secret  of  her  power  is  typified  in  the  mystery  of 
the  Real  Presence.'^ 

But  such  pageants  and  processions  were  not  lim- 
ited to  Corpus  Christi  Day.  They  frequently 
took  place  on  the  great  feast  days  of  the  different 
gilds.  The  members  in  their  liveries,  garlanded 
with  flowers  or  crowned  with  wreaths  of  leaves, 
bearing  in  their  hands  lighted  candles  which  often 
were  most  richly  ornamented,  might  be  seen 
marching  through  the  streets  of  the  city  with  song 
and  music  on  the  way  to  their  own  gild  church  or 
altar.  Here  they  attended  at  Mass,  which  was 
solemnly  celebrated,  and  a  merry  banquet  followed 
at  which  all  partook.  On  the  next  day  they  might 
again  assemble  at  a  Requiem  sung  for  the  souls  of 
the  departed  members.  As  an  interesting  ex- 
ample it  will  suffice  to  quote  the  regulations  for 
the  annual  pageant  held  on  the  feast  of  the  Puri- 
fication by  the  religious  gild  of  St.  Mary,  estab- 
lished at  Beverley  in  1355.  They  are  charming 
in  their  faith  and  simplicity. 

All  the  brethren  and  sisters,  the  ordinance  reads,  shall  meet 
together  in  a  fit  and  appointed  place,  away  from  the  church; 
and  there  one  of  the  gild  shall  be  clad  in  comely  fashion  as  a 
queen,  like  to  the  glorious  Virgin  Mary,  having  what  may  seem 
a  son   in  her   arms.     Two  others  shall  be  clad   like  to  Joseph 

'^  Other  similar  flashes  occur  in  Old  New  England  writers. 


CIVIC    PAGEANTS   AND   PLAYS  257 

and  Simeon;  and  two  shall  go  as  angels,  carrying  a  candle- 
bearer,  on  which  shall  be  twenty-four  thick  wax  lights.  With 
these  and  other  great  lights  borne  before  them,  and  with  music 
and  gladness,  the  pageant  Virgin  with  her  Son,  and  Joseph  and 
Simeon  shall  go  in  procession  to  the  church.  And  all  the  sisters 
of  the  gild  shall  follow  the  Virgin;  and  afterwards  all  the 
brethren.  Each  of  them  shall  carry  a  wax  light  weighing  half 
a  pound.  And  they  shall  go  two  and  two,  slowly  pacing  to  the 
church;  and  when  they  have  got  there,  the  pageant  Virgin  shall 
offer  her  Son  to  Simeon  at  the  high  altar;  and  all  the  sisters 
and  brethren  shall  offer  their  wax  lights,  together  with  a  penny 
each.  All  this  having  been  solemnly  done,  they  shall  go  home 
again  in  gladness.^ 

Mass  having  been  heard,  as  was  the  custom, 
they  were  later  in  the  day  to  meet  again  for  a 
simple  banquet,  regaling  themselves  with  modest 
but  hearty  cheer,  "  rejoicing  in  the  Lord,  in  praise 
of  the  glorious  Virgin  Mary."  Such  was  the 
faith,  such  the  happiness,  such  the  civic  spirit, 
such  the  brotherhood  in  Christ  in  those  days  when 
there  was  still  a  "  merrie  "  England,  and  when 
the  Catholic  Church  in  all  her  beauty  was  close 
to  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men. 

There  was  withal  a  spirit  of  profound  democ- 
racy in  this  religion.  It  displayed  itself  in  the 
very  building  of  the  churches  where  we  behold  that 
deep  inward  joy  that  comes  from  a  conscience  at 
peace  and  a  heart  inflamed  with  the  love  of  God. 
In  a  letter  written  in  1145  Abbot  Haimon  thus 
describes  how  the  building  of  Chartres  Cathedral 
was  begun: 

8  Cornelius  Walford,  "  Gilds,"  pp.  244,  245.    J.  T.  Smith. 


258  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

Who  has  ever  seen!  Who  has  ever  heard  at  all,  in  times 
past,  that  powerful  princes  of  the  world,  that  men  brought  up 
in  honor  and  in  wealth,  that  nobles,  men  and  women,  have  bent 
their  proud  and  haughty  necks  to  the  harness  of  carts,  and  that, 
like  beasts  of  burden,  they  have  dragged  to  the  abode  of  Christ 
these  wagons,  loaded  with  wines,  grains,  oil,  stone,  wood,  and 
all  that  is  necessary  for  the  wants  of  life,  or  for  the  construc- 
tion of  the  church?  .  .  .  There  one  sees  the  priests  who  preside 
over  each  chariot  exhort  every  one  to  penitence,  to  confession 
of  faults,  to  the  resolution  of  a  better  life!  There  one  sees  old 
people,  young  people,  little  children,  calling  on  the  Lord  with  a 
suppliant  voice,  uttering  to  Him,  from  the  depth  of  the  heart, 
sobs  and  sighs  with  words  of  glory  and  praise !  After  the  peo- 
ple, warned  by  the  sound  of  trumpets  and  the  sight  of  banners, 
have  resumed  their  road,  the  march  is  made  with  such  ease  that 
no  obstacle  can  retard  it.  .  .  .  When  they  have  reached  the 
church  they  arrange  the  wagons  about  it  like  a  spiritual  camp, 
and  during  the  whole  night  they  celebrate  the  watch  by  hymns 
and  canticles.  On  each  wagon  they  light  tapers  and  lamps; 
they  place  there  the  infirm  and  sick,  and  bring  them  the  precious 
relics  of  the  Saints  for  their  relief.  Afterwards  the  priests  and 
clerics  close  the  ceremony  by  processions  which  the  people  fol- 
low with  devout  heart,  imploring  the  clemency  of  the  Lord 
and  of  His  Blessed  Mother  for  the  recovery  of  the  sick.* 

Merriment  and  deep  devotion  blended  in  the 
life  of  these  brave  men  and  leal,  who  best  under- 
stood the  true  meaning  of  democracy  and  found 
its  only  safeguard  in  religion,  whose  worship  was 
no  less  profound  because  they  loved  the  brightness 
and  the  cheer  of  life,  who  mingled  laughter  with 
their  deepest  thoughts;  who  joyed  to  see  the  grin- 
ning gargoyle  gurgling  from  cathedral  eaves  while 
saints  and  angels  stood  in  glorious  ranks  about 

»  Henry  Adams,  "  Mont-Saint-Michel  and  Chartres,"  pp.  104, 
X05. 


CIVIC   PAGEANTS   AND   PLAYS  259 

the  carven  portals  that  admitted  to  the  House  of 
God.  They  knew  how,  as  men  have  never  better 
known,  to  mingle  prayer,  work  and  play  into  the 
glowing  tapestry  of  life. 


CHAPTER     XXV 

THE  CHURCH  AND  THE  PEOPLE 

WANT  of  accurate  historic  knowledge  and 
a  dearth  of  reliable  literature  on  the 
historic  backgrounds  of  the  social  ques- 
tion helped  for  a  long  time  to  perpetuate  the  be- 
lief that  the  Church,  in  the  past,  was  opposed  to 
the  democratization  of  labor.  Hence  the  conclu- 
sion that  she  must  equally  be  opposed  to  it  in  our 
day.  Reference  is  invariably  made  in  this  con- 
nection to  the  occasional  clashes  of  interests  be- 
tween bishops  or  monasteries  on  the  one  side,  and 
the  sturdy  old  gildsmen  on  the  other.  They  are 
isolated  instances  chosen  from  the  long  centuries 
of  medieval  history  and  merely  serve  to  call  at- 
tention to  the  lasting  harmony  that  existed  be- 
tween the  Church  and  the  crafts,  whose  indebted- 
ness to  her  was  beyond  all  reckoning. 

In  dealing  with  this  important  question,  it  is 
necessary  to  distinguish  between  the  period  preced- 
ing the  latter  part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  and 
the  period  which  immediately  followed  and  con- 
tinued on  to  the  date  of  the  Reformation.  Going 
back  to  the  ninth  and  eighth  centuries,  and  even 
to  earlier  times,  when  all  of  Europe  was  Catholic, 

260 


THE    CHURCH    AND   THE    PEOPLE  261 

we  look  in  vain  for  any  wide-spread  disaffection 
of  the  people  against  the  Church.  During  this 
period,  it  is  true,  the  bishops  were  often  temporal 
sovereigns,  while  the  abbots  of  famous  monas- 
teries not  seldom  enjoyed  an  equal  influence  and 
power.  Such  was  the  accepted  condition  of  the 
time.  The  rule  of  the  bishops  was  characterized 
by  its  special  benignity,  while  the  wealth  of  the 
monasteries  was  in  reality  the  dower  of  the  poor. 
"  Good  hap  to  live  neath  the  bishop's  crook,"  be- 
came a  proverbial  expression.  The  influence  of 
the  monasteries  cannot  be  called  in  question,  nor 
the  love  and  respect  which  all  classes  showed  for 
the  habit  of  the  monk.  The  gifts  which  flowed 
into  the  coffers  of  the  abbey  found  their  way  back 
again  most  freely  to  the  people  in  their  need. 
Religious  houses  at  times  lost  the  spirit  of  their 
primitive  rule.  Highly  placed  prelates,  with  in- 
creasing prosperity,  might  yield  in  particular  in- 
stances to  the  lure  of  temporal  interests  and  am- 
bitions, yet  the  confidence  of  the  people  was  never 
withdrawn  from  the  great  body  of  their  bishops 
and  clergy  and  the  truly  popular  religious  orders 
of  the  day.  Nor  was  this  trust  misplaced.  Un- 
der all  circumstances  they  ever  found  in  them  their 
only  lasting  friends. 

It  was  under  the  direct  influence  of  the  Church 
that  the  democratization  of  labor  took  place  in 
the  Middle  Ages.  It  was  under  her  guidance 
and   tuition   that  the   craft   gilds  unfolded   their 


262  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

marvelous  statutes.  If  the  application  of  her 
teaching,  embodying  the  highest  possible  concep- 
tion of  human  brotherhood,  was  not  perfect  on 
the  part  either  of  gildsmen  or  of  clerics,  the  rea- 
son was  to  be  found,  not  in  the  Church,  but  in 
that  human  nature  which  will  always  fall  short 
of  its  loftiest  ideals.  It  is  clearly  irrelevant  to 
speak  of  any  serious  discord,  at  this  period,  be- 
tween the  Church  and  the  people  who  owed  ev- 
erything to  her. 

But  can  it  be  said  that  a  change  took  place  in  the 
popular  mind?  The  first  great  event  to  be  noted 
occurred  at  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century. 
We  refer  to  the  Black  Death,  which  carried  off 
one-fourth  of  the  population  of  Europe.  It 
reached  England  in  1348.  "  The  clergy  seem  to 
have  suffered  the  worst,"  writes  Alfred  Milnes, 
^'  probably  falling  a  sacrifice  to  their  own  devo- 
tion in  ministering  to  the  dying;  and  the  monas- 
teries worst  of  all."  ^  Such  was  the  example  the 
Catholic  clergy  has  ever  given  in  every  great 
popular  calamity,  showing  how  truly  and  pro- 
foundly the  welfare  of  the  people  is  at  their  heart. 
Priests  and  monks  were  found  at  their  posts,  giv- 
ing their  lives  for  their  flocks. 

The  fewness  of  laborers,  when  the  plague  had 
passed,  enabled  those  who  survived,  to  demand  ex- 
orbitant wages.  The  abundant  crops  of  that  year 
were  left  to  stand  unharvested  in  the  fields  and  the 

1  "From  Gild  to  Factory." 


THE    CHURCH    AND   THE    PEOPLE  263 

cattle  roamed  unherded  over  the  pastures.  In 
the  cities  also  the  same  dearth  of  laborers  existed. 
The  laws  repeatedly  enacted  at  this  period  to  for- 
bid the  taking  or  giving  of  unusual  wages  are  often 
severely  censured.  It  was  not  possible  strictly  to 
enforce  them,  and  wages  almost  doubled,  but  it  is 
wrong  to  look  upon  them  as  capitalistic  measures. 
"  These  regulations  of  wages,"  says  Brentano, 
"  were  but  the  expression  of  the  general  policy  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  which  considered  that  the  first 
duty  of  the  State  was  to  protect  the  weak  against 
the  strong,  which  not  only  knew  of  rights  but  also 
of  duties  of  the  individual  towards  society,  and 
condemned  as  usury  every  attempt  to  take  un- 
seemly advantage  of  the  temporal  distress  of  one's 
neighbor."  ^  Yet  a  great  confusion  resulted  from 
which  Europe  seems  never  to  have  entirely  recov- 
ered. A  religious  decline,  too,  set  in  and  with  it 
the  inevitable  economic  disorder.  Inferior  and 
undesirable  postulants,  we  are  told,  were  often  ac- 
cepted to  fill  out  the  ranks  of  the  depleted  clergy. 
The  Church,  however,  had  already  accom- 
plished a  great  work.  She  had  been  the  domi- 
nant influence  in  the  abolition  of  slavery  and  had 
mightily  contributed  to  the  disappearance  of  the 
old  forms  of  serfdom.  She  was  now,  gradually 
but  surely,  helping  towards  the  greater  emancipa- 
tion of  the  peasant  classes.  The  process  was  nor- 
mal so  long  as  the  direct  influence  of  the  Church's 

'"History  and  Development  of  Gilds,"  p.  78. 


264  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

teaching  could  be  effective.  Another  Instance  of 
the  lack  of  historic  information  is  the  statement 
often  made  that  the  liberation  of  the  peasant 
classes  began  with  Wyclif  and  the  preaching  of 
his  "  poor  priests."  The  latter,  it  may  be  said  in 
passing,  were  not  priests  at  all,  though  some  of 
them  may  have  been  poor  enough  after  the  fashion 
of  the  Bolshevist  agitator  of  to-day.  Misapplied 
Scripture  texts  served  for  their  weapons  of  de- 
struction. More  material  means  were  to  be  used 
later. 

The  theological  theories  of  Wyclif  do  not  con- 
cern us  here.  They  centered  in  a  denial  of  the 
spiritual  authority  of  the  Church  and  in  an  at- 
tack upon  the  Holy  Eucharist.  His  direct  princi- 
ple of  social  anarchism,  however,  was  the  doctrine 
that  "  dominion  is  founded  in  grace."  No  regard 
was  to  be  had  either  for  the  property  or  authority 
of  men  in  the  state  of  sin.  It  was  sufficient  for 
Wyclif  or  his  followers  to  decide  that  the  men 
whose  property  they  desired  to  alienate  were  not 
in  the  state  of  grace.  Since,  Wyclif  himself,  like 
other  reformers,  was  a  close  personal  friend  of 
the  wealthy  secular  lords,  he  cautiously  limited  the 
application  of  his  principle  to  ecclesiastics  only. 
This  enabled  him  to  curry  favor  with  the  rich  in 
a  twofold  manner.  Clerics  and  monks,  he  taught, 
committed  sin  by  the  very  fact  that  they  held  prop- 
erty. It  was  therefore  a  pious  duty  of  secular 
princes  to  relieve  them  of  this  encumbrance  which 


THE    CHURCH    AND   THE    PEOPLE  265 

else  must  bring  them  to  eternal  damnation.  The 
good  lords  would  thus  gain  for  themselves  both 
earth  and  heaven  at  one  happy  stroke.  In  a  simi- 
lar manner  Luther  later  won  the  support  of  his 
favorite  princes  by  giving  them,  not  merely  the 
property  of  the  Church,  but  her  spiritual  authority 
as  well. 

Wyclif's  "  poor  priests,"  unlike  their  master, 
had  no  close  intimacy  with  rich  and  powerful 
lords.  Logically  they  extended  their  principle 
to  secular  owners  as  well.  They  were  the  Bol- 
shevists of  their  time  and  carried  on  their  cam- 
paign with  a  similar  enthusiasm.  The  existence 
of  real  social  abuses  won  a  temporary  hearing  for 
their  wild  and  exaggerated  statements.  Their 
preaching  contributed,  with  other  causes,  to  bring 
about  the  Peasant  Revolt  of  138 1. 

Lollardy,  as  this  movement  was  called,  was  of 
but  short  duration.  It  gathered  for  the  moment 
a  great  following  among  the  anti-clerical  lords  and 
adventurers,  who  were  greedy  to  obtain  posses- 
sion of  ecclesiastical  property  and  of  the  spoils 
of  churches  and  monasteries.  It  gained  adherents 
also  among  the  disaffected  subjects  of  rich  abbeys 
and  lords,  and  among  all  who  wished  to  shake  off 
the  spiritual  authority  of  the  Church.  "  Wyclif's 
real  influence,"  says  the  foremost  writer  upon  this 
subject.  Dr.  James  Gairdner,  "  did  not  long  sur- 
vive his  own  day,  and  so  far  from  Lollardy  hav- 
ing taken  any  deep  root  among  the  English  peo- 


266  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

pie,  the  traces  of  it  had  wholly  disappeared  long 
before  the  great  revolution  of  which  it  was  thought 
to  be  the  forerunner.^  In  the  meantime  the 
Church  continued  her  effective  work  for  the  crafts 
and  the  people,  who  did  not  fail  to  show  their  con- 
stant recognition  and  gratitude.  "  Here,  as  in 
Germany,"  says  Cardinal  Gasquet  writing  of  Eng- 
land in  the  latter  fifteenth  and  early  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, "  the  burgher  folk,  the  merchants  and  the 
middle  class  generally,  began  to  pour  their  gifts 
into  a  common  fund  from  which  to  beautify  their 
parish  churches  with  a  profusion  which  corre- 
sponded to,  and  is  indicative  of,  the  general 
growth  in  the  material  comforts  of  life,  and  would 
seem  to  show  that  religion  had  in  nowise  lost  its 
hold  over  the  hearts  of  the  people."  *  Summing 
up  his  impressions  of  the  social  conditions  of  the 
period,  James  E.  Thorold  Rogers  says: 

There  were  none  of  those  extremes  of  poverty  and  wealth 
which  have  excited  the  astonishment  of  philanthropists,  and  are 
now  exciting  the  indignation  of  workmen.  The  age,  it  is  true, 
had  its  discontents,  and  these  discontents  were  expressed  for- 
cibly and  in  a  startling  manner.  But  of  poverty  which  perishes 
unheeded,  of  a  willingness  to  do  honest  work  and  a  lack  of 
opportunity,  there  was  little  or  none.  The  essence  of  life  in 
England  during  the  days  of  the  Plantagenets  and  Tudors  was 
that  every  one  knew  his  neighbor,  and  that  every  one  was  his 
brother's  keeper.'' 

3  See    Cardinal    Gasquet,   "  England   under  the   Old   Religion 
and  Other  Essays." 
*  Ibid.,  pp.   21,  22. 
■^  See  Gasquet,  "  The  Last  Abbot  of  Glastonbury,"  pp.  251,  252. 


THE    CHURCH   AND   THE    PEOPLE  267 

This  truth  the  Church  had  instilled  deep  into 
the  minds  of  men.  So  she  continued  in  her  bene- 
ficient  influence  upon  the  people,  until  her  teach- 
ings of  charity  and  social  justice  were  at  last 
widely  disregarded  and  her  great  popular  institu- 
tions disrupted  or  rendered  ineffective  by  the  ca- 
tastrophe which  now  impended. 

It  is  impossible,  says  Cardinal  Gasquet  in 
another  of  his  accurate  and  profound  historic 
studies,  to  read  the  sermons  of  the  period  follow- 
ing upon  the  Black  Death,  "  without  seeing  how 
entirely  the  clergy  were  with  the  people  to  secure 
full  and  entire  liberty  for  themselves  and  their 
posterity."  It  is  probably  to  the  clergy,  he 
concludes,  that  the  preamble  of  an  act  passed  in 
the  first  year  of  Richard  II  refers,  which  says: 
"  Villeins  withdraw  their  services  and  customs 
from  their  lords,  by  the  comfort  and  procurement 
of  others,  their  counsellors,  maintainers  and  abet- 
tors, etc.,  etc."  ® 

Describing  conditions  in  the  "  Golden  Age," 
when  England  still  retained  the  glorious  heritage 
of  its  Catholic  Faith,  R.  L.  Outhwaite,  in  his  study, 
"  The  Land  or  Revolution,"  contrasts  them  with 
the  evils  that  followed  on  the  Reformation,  though 
no  controversial  purpose  was  in  his  mind.  He 
states  the  facts  as  he  sees  them,  without  penetrat- 
ing deeper  to  their  ultimate  causes,  and  it  is  sig- 

«  Cardinal  Francis  Aidan  Gasquet,  "The  Black  Death,"  pp. 
232,  233. 


268  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

nificant  that  his  only  reference  to  the  lands  pos- 
sessed by  the  monks  is  the  accurate  statement  that 
they  were  "  held  largely  in  trust  for  the  people." 
The  monks,  we  must  remember,  were  themselves 
laborers,  with  a  right  to  the  soil  they  tilled.  Of 
the  days  preceding  the  Reformation  Outhwaite 
writes : 

Englishmen  once  had  no  dread  of  hunger,  for  they  once  were 
free.  Four  hundred  years  ago  they  had  won  their  way  out  of 
serfdom  and  had  established  the  Golden  Age.  Then  no  man 
starved,  for  three  or  four  days'  labor  provided  sufficient  food 
for  the  week.  So  it  was  on  the  countryside,  and  so  it  was  in 
the  towns  where,  united  in  gilds,  the  workers  were  craftsmen 
and  free.  And  this  came  about  by  no  miraculous  dispensation 
but  through  the  simple  fact  that  those  who  wished  to  till  the 
soil  had  the  opportunity  to  do  so.  Those  were  the  days  of 
Merrte  England,  when  the  village  surrounded  by  its  common 
fields  sheltered  a  yeomanry  the  like  of  which  the  world  had  not 
seen  before,  and  has  not  since.  The  common  people,  the  Saxon 
serfs,  had  won  their  way  to  freedom  by  way  of  the  land,  for 
freedom  consists  in  not  being  compelled  to  beg  leave  of  an- 
other to  toil  and  live. 

But  the  Reformation  now  followed,  and  with  it 
came  the  era  of  "  the  land  monopolist  "  and  "  the 
industrial  slave  market."     He  thus  continues: 

Those  from  whose  bondage  the  serfs  had  escaped,  the  feudal 
holders  of  one-third  of  English  soil,  determined  to  reestablish 
serfdom.  The  free  land  they  saw  was  the  basis  of  freedom, 
and  this  they  proceeded  to  add  to  their  estates.  Rapidly  the 
transformation  of  the  Golden  Age  took  place  as  the  great  es- 
tates grew.  The  peasants  rose  in  rebellions,  but  were  crushed 
by  the  nobles  aided  by  foreign  mercenaries  of  despotic  kings. 
To  these  estates  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII  were  added  the 
monastery   lands,   held    largely   in   trust  for   the   people.    The 


THE    CHURCH    AND   THE    PEOPLE  269 

gilds  were  broken  up,  and  the  unemployed  man  appeared. 
Slavery,  with  all  its  pains  and  penalties,  the  branding-iron  and 
the  gallows,  was  established,  and  in  the  course  of  fifty  years 
the  Golden  Age  had  passed  away.  Soon  after,  in  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  the  first  Poor  Law  was  placed  on  the  Statute  Book. 

From  all  this  the  Church  had  preserved  the  peo- 
ple. That  this  is  no  unfounded  statement  is  plain 
from  the  fact  that  the  same  consequences  followed 
in  other  lands.  After  quoting  the  English  par- 
liamentarian, we  shall  allow  ourselves  the  luxury 
of  quoting  to  the  same  effect  the  volume  of  an 
Anglican  chaplain  in  the  Great  War,  who  rightly 
says: 

It  is  perfectly  true  that  the  monastic  life  was  a  special  voca- 
tion, but  it  is  interesting  that  the  ideals  of  the  monastery  were 
largely  the  ideals  of  labor  outside  it.  Those  ideals  existed  in 
the  world  of  labor  so  long  as  the  monastic  system  in  its  midst 
radiated  them  —  that  also  is  interesting.  For  the  gild  was  ex- 
traordinarily like  the  community  of  religious.  It  also  was  based 
on  religion,  and  sought  both  the  sanction  and  the  reward  of  re- 
ligion ;  it  also  maintained  the  honesty  of  physical  toil,  for  the 
master  had  first  to  serve  his  apprenticeship,  not  as  a  junior 
partner  but  as  a  laborer;  and  it  also  set  high  the  beauty  of  its 
craftmanship  as  a  thing  in  itself  a  reward.  With  the  passing 
of  the  gild,  passed  these  ideals  generally  from  the  economic 
world. ^ 

These  facts  will  be  more  fully  illustrated  in  the 
chapter  on  "  The  Great  Catastrophe." 

'^  Robert  Keable,  "  Standing  By,"  pp.  242,  243. 


CHAPTER     XXVI 

CATHOLICS  AND  POLITICAL 
DEMOCRACY 

AMONG  the  fictions  which  long  retained 
their  hold  upon  the  popular  imagination 
was  the  strange  assumption  that  democ- 
racy had  been  begotten  by  the  Reformation.  The 
movement  that  for  a  time  actually  succeeded  in 
crushing  almost  every  expression  of  popular  rights 
was  marvelously  transformed  into  the  very  foun- 
tain-source of  democratic  liberties.  It  would  in- 
deed be  difficult,  as  men  can  now  readily  under- 
stand, to  point  to  a  more  monumental  travesty  in 
all  history.  The  patent  absurdity  was  made  pos- 
sible only  by  the  lack  of  careful  and  impartial 
research.  Even  Luther,  who  conferred  on  his 
own  princes  the  most  autocratic  powers  in  spiritual 
no  less  than  in  temporal  matters,  who  fiercely  sur- 
rendered the  hapless  peasants  into  the  blood- 
stained hands  of  their  merciless  lords  and  for  gen- 
erations to  come  fixed  on  them  the  yoke  of  a  new 
and  bitter  serfdom,  who  in  the  famous  sermon 
preached  in  1524  longed  for  the  return  of  the  days 
of  slavery,  and  to  whom  in  his  closing  years  the  in- 
dignant people  gave  the  fitting  title:  "Hypocrite 

270 


CATHOLICS   AND    POLITICAL    DEMOCRACY        27 1 

and  princes'  menial,"  was  still  hailed  by  some,  in 
our  own  twentieth  century,  as  the  great  protagonist 
of  modern  democracy.  Such  praise  must  seem  the 
consummation  of  all  irony  to  those  who  are  fa- 
miliar with  his  detestation  of  "  the  vulgar  masses," 
as  he  scornfully  called  them,  telling  the  princelings 
of  his  day,  that: 

They  must  be  like  men  who  drive  mules.  One  must  con- 
stantly cling  to  their  necks  (1.  e.,  of  the  common  people)  and 
urge  them  on  with  whips,  or  else  they  will  not  move  ahead.  So 
then  are  the  rulers  to  drive,  beat,  choke,  hang,  burn,  behead 
and  break  upon  the  wheel  the  vulgar  masses,  Sir  All.^ 

With  such  texts,  that  can  be  quoted  profusely, 
written  about  his  pedestal,  Luther  must  form  "  a 
sorry  sight,"  indeed,  for  those  who  would  behold 
in  him  the  glorification  of  democracy.  "  In  virtue 
of  the  principle  cu]us  regio,  hujus  religio  (the 
lord's  religion  is  the  subject's  creed),"  says  Go- 
yan,  "  faith,  in  spite  of  Luther's  doctrines,  has  not 
been  a  product  and  inspiration  of  conscience,  but 
a  livery  only,  imposed  by  some  prince  on  his  sub- 
jects." ^  It  was  Luther  himself  who  is  responsi- 
ble for  this  twofold  autocracy. 

The  good  Church  of  England  fares  no  better. 
In  her  "  Constitutions  and  Canons,"  June  30, 
1640,  it  was  made  the  sacred  duty  of  every  clergy- 
man at  least  four  times  a  year  to  preach  that  "  the 

1  Erlangen  Edition  of  Luther's  Works,  XV,  2,  p.  276.  See 
«  What  Luther  Taught,"  Chapter  VI. 

2  "  L'Allemagne  Religieuse,"  p.  2,  apud  Baudrillart. 


272  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

most  sacred  order  of  kings  is  of  Divine  right,"  a 
doctrine  that  would  have  been  anathema  if  uttered 
in  the  Middle  Ages.  The  preachers  are  further 
to  instruct  all  good  subjects  that  to  set  up  "  under 
any  pretense  whatsoever,  any  independent  coactive 
power,  either  papal  or  popular,  whether  directly 
or  indirectly  ...  is  treasonable  against  God  as 
well  as  against  the  King."  ^ 

In  his  two  articles  on  "  The  Catholic  Origin  of 
Democracy,"  in  Studies  for  March  and  June, 
1 9 19,  to  which  the  author  is  exceptionally  indebted 
throughout  this  chapter,  Professor  Alfred  Rahilly 
shows  further  how  this  same  doctrine  of  the  Di- 
vine right  of  kings,  and  their  absolute  autocracy  in 
things  temporal  and  spiritual,  was  upheld  in  the 
English  universities  of  Reformation  days.  Only 
seven  years  before  the  "  Revolution  "  of  1688  the 
University  of  Cambridge  solemnly  declared  in  its 
address  to  Charles  II : 

V^e  still  believe  and  maintain  that  our  kings  derive  not  their 
title  from  the  people  but  from  God,  that  to  Him  only  they  are 
accountable,  that  it  belongs  not  to  the  subjects  either  to  create 
or  censure  but  to  honor  and  obey  their  sovereign,  who  comes 
to  be  so  by  a  fundamental  hereditary  right  of  succession  which 
no  religion,  no  law,  no  fault  or  forfeiture  can  alter  or  di- 
minish.'* 

At  the  same  time  her  sister  university  con- 
demned the  "  damnable  doctrines  "  of  the  Jesuit 

8  Laud,  "Works,"  V,  p.  613,  614. 

■*  Seller,  "  The  History  of  Passive  Obedience,"  p.  108. 


CATHOLICS   AND    POLITICAL   DEMOCRACY        273 

Cardinal  Bellarmine,  and  the  Jesuit  theologian, 
Suarez,  which  soon  found  its  way  into  the  Ameri- 
can Declaration  of  Independence  and  inspired 
democratic  Englishmen  with  a  larger  concept  of 
true  popular  liberty,  though  they  might  not  know 
its  source.  The  very  same  doctrine  is,  at  the  pres- 
ent writing,  taught  at  the  Gregorian  University  at 
Rome,  and  is  thus  compactly  stated  by  Father  C. 
Macksey,  S.  J.,  in  his  *'  De  Ethica  Naturali," 
printed  for  the  use  of  the  Roman  students: 

The  community,  constituted  into  a  civil  society,  is  the  natural 
subject  on  which,  of  its  very  essence  and  of  necessity,  by  the 
.natural  law,  civil  authority  descends  in  the  first  place.  By  the 
consent  of  the  community  it  subsequently  passes  to  the  subject 
by  whom  it  is  permanently  and  formally  exercised.'^ 

Ultimately,  of  course,  all  authority  must  be  de- 
rived from  God  as  its  original  source.  But  it  is 
the  doctrine  of  popular  rights  and  of  the  consent, 
explicit  or  implicit,  of  the  governed  which  was 
the  insufferable  heresy  in  the  days  of  "  good  Queen 
Bess."  The  same  held  true  of  the  other  Reforma- 
tion countries.  "  All  the  people  of  the  Protestant 
countries,"  Lord  Molesworth  quaintly  remarked 
in  1892,  "  have  lost  their  liberty  since  they  changed 
their  religion  for  a  better."  But  by  the  fruit 
shall  the  tree  be  known. 

Yet  the  doctrine  of  democracy  survived  and  has 
been  safely  handed  down,  not  merely  to  the  Cath- 
olic schools,  but  to  the  world  at  large,  from  the 

5  Thesis  LIII. 


274  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

Middle  Ages.  How,  we  naturally  wonder,  has 
this  come  about?  As  the  first  cause,  though  per- 
haps not  the  most  important,  we  may  mention  the 
gild  organizations.  These  institutions,  though 
sadly  hampered,  debilitated  and  degenerated,  still 
for  a  time  continued  in  existence.  Norwich,  the 
cradle  of  Congregationalism,  as  Professor  Rahilly 
points  out,  was  famous  for  its  gilds  as  well  as  for 
its  chartered  companies.  From  their  ordinances 
and  statutes,  established  "  by  the  common  con- 
sent," after  the  same  democratic  methods  that  had 
obtained  in  the  medieval  Religious  Orders,  it  was 
not  a  far  cry  to  the  Mayflower  Covenant  of  1620: 

The  American  colonists,  merchant  as  well  as  religious  ad- 
venturers, merely  set  up  farther  afield  in  untrodden  soil  those 
little  commonwealths  and  bodies  politic  which  had  long  existed 
in  Calais  and  Antwerp  and  Bruges.  Religious  gilds  working 
through  nonconformist  churches,  and  merchant  gilds  trans- 
formed into  trading  companies  and  chartered  plantations,  com- 
bined to  produce  the  United  States  of  America,  whose  inde- 
pendence was  ultimately  won  not  by  political  theories  but 
largely  by  the  prowess  of  those  who  were  driven  into  exile  by 
Puritan  persecution  and  chartered  plantations  in  Ireland.^ 

But  it  is  to  the  writings  of  the  Catholic  school- 
men in  particular  that  we  must  look  for  the  dy- 
namic principles  to  which  we  owe  the  very  concep- 
tion of  all  true  modern  democracy,  which  is  purely 
a  child  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It  was  thence  that 
Bellarmine  and  Suarez  and  their  direct  predeces- 
sors had  drawn  those  doctrines  to  which  our  gen- 

^  Studies,  June,  1919,  p.  197. 


CATHOLICS   AND   POLITICAL   DEMOCRACY       275 

uine  democratic  systems  owe  their  origin.  The 
"  Conferences  "  of  Father  Persons,  the  Jesuit,  who 
was  known  under  the  name  of  Doleman,  were  the 
source,  according  to  that  strict  defender  of  auto- 
cratic royalty,  Abednego  Seller,  writing  in  1690, 
"  whence  most  of  our  modern  enemies  of  the  true 
rights  of  princes  have  borrowed  both  their  argu- 
ments and  their  authorities."  The  "  true  rights 
of  princes,"  after  the  mind  of  good  Abednego, 
were  those  comprised  under  the  doctrine  of  the 
Divine  right  of  kings,  mercilessly  demolished  by 
Persons,  whose  book,  in  turn,  was  publicly  burned 
by  Oxford  University,  and  its  printer,  tradition 
says,  "  hanged,  drawn  and  quartered."  Persons 
indignantly  denounced  the  Reformation  doctrine 
that  princes  are  subject  to  no  law  or  limitation, 
*'  as  though  the  Commonwealth  had  been  made 
for  them  and  not  they  for  the  Commonwealth," 
and  boldly  declared: 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  commonwealth  hath  power 
to  choose  their  own  fashion  of  government,  as  also  to  change 
the  same  upon  reasonable  cause.  ...  In  like  manner  it  is 
evident  that  as  the  commonwealth  hath  this  authority  to  choose 
and  change  her  government,  so  hath  she  also  to  limit  the  same 
with  what  laws  and  conditions  she  pleaseth.''^ 

This  obviously  was  no  comfortable  doctrine  for 
the  court  of  Elizabeth  and  its  "  State-ridden 
Church." 

The  extreme  acts  of  the  Puritans  were  not  jus- 

"^  Ibid.,  198,  199. 


276  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

tified  by  the  teachings  of  the  Catholic  schoolmen, 
but  their  conception  of  democracy  itself  was  de- 
rived by  them  from  no  other  sources.  "  These 
Puritan  preachers,"  wrote  Selden  in  his  "  Table 
Talk,"  "  if  they  have  anything  good,  they  have 
it  out  of  Popish  books,  though  they  will  not  ac- 
knowledge it  for  fear  of  displeasing  the  people." 
In  the  same  manner  the  Covenanters  drew  upon 
Jesuit  authorities,  while  Charles  I,  in  1639,  said 
of  the  Presbyterian  arguments  that  they  "  are 
taken  almost  verbatim  out  of  Bellarmine  and 
Suarez."  *  Professor  Rahilly  quotes  from  Sam- 
uel Rutherford's  "  Lex  Rex,"  which  was  the  great 
Presbyterian  armory  in  those  strenuous  days.  A 
single  brief  passage,  indeed,  suffices  to  indicate  the 
indebtedness  which  Rutherford  vainly  sought  to 
deny: 

Covarruvias,  Soto,  and  Suarez  have  rightly  said  that  power 
of  government  is  immediately  from  God,  and  this  or  that  defi- 
nite power  is  mediately  from  God,  proceeding  from  God  by 
the  mediation  of  the  consent  of  a  community.* 

So  too  the  Calvinists,  "  except  for  their  oppor- 
tunist advocacy  of  tyrranicide  .  .  .  merely  re- 
peated, and  sometimes  unfortunately  distorted,  the 
teachings  of  their  Catholic  predecessors  and  mas- 
ters." As  a  very  pertinent  instance  reference  is 
made  to  the  Calvinist  George  Buchanan  of  whom 
it  has  been  grandiloquently  said  that:  "  The  prin- 

^  Ibid.,  201-205. 

»  Q.  2,  p.  3b,  Ed.  1843 


CATHOLICS   AND   POLITICAL   DEMOCRACY       277 

ciples  which  he  successfully  floated  in  unpropitious 
times  undoubtedly  produced  the  two  great  English, 
the  American,  and  the  French  Revolutions,  with 
all  their  continuations  and  consequences,"  whereas 
he  himself  plainly  states:  '*  I  will  explain  not  so 
much  my  own  view  as  that  of  the  ancients."  ** 
And  would  that  he  had  learned  his  lesson  far  more 
thoroughly !  The  same  is  true  in  the  case  of  other 
Calvinist  writers  whose  democracy,  in  France, 
came  to  a  sudden  and  unprovided  end  when  auto- 
cratic principles  served  their  purpose  better.  For 
as  Baudrillart  says: 

If  at  first  the  French  Calvinists  seemed  to  favor  liberty,  it 
was  only  when  the  royal  power  was  against  them.  From  the 
day  the  heir  to  the  throne  was  a  Protestant  they  quickly  cast 
all  their  liberal  and  democratic  theories  to  the  wind  and  began 
to  preach  the  doctrine  of  absolute  legitimacy  and  of  passive 
obedience  to  the  sovereign,  whoever  he  may  be.^^ 

The  Catholic  writers,  whose  doctrines  dated 
back  to  the  Middle  Ages,  were  not  responsible  for 
all  the  conclusions  drawn  from  their  books,  yet 
they  were  clearly  the  originators  of  modern  de- 
mocracy. Its  entire  structure,  in  so  far  as  it  is 
true  and  sound,  rests  upon  the  work  of  the  Cath- 
olic schoolmen  and  is  broadly  based  upon  the  foun- 
dations laid  by  medieval  thinkers,  both  lay  and 
clerical. 

10  "D?  jure  regni  apud  Scoios."  See  Studies,  March,  1919, 
pp.  14-17. 

"  "  The  Catholic  Church,  the  Renaissance  and  Protestantism," 
p.  311. 


278  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

For  a  conclusive  argument  It  Is  hardly  necessary 
to  refer  to  any  other  source  than  the  ''  Patriarcha," 
of  Sir  Robert  Filmer,  an  ardent  royalist  who  died 
in  1680.  He  not  merely  finds  that  democracy 
"  was  first  hatched  in  the  schools,"  but  quotes, 
moreover,  a  passage  from  Cardinal  Bellarmine  as 
comprising  "  the  strength  of  all  that  ever  I  have 
read  or  heard  produced  for  the  natural  liberty  on 
the  subject."  The  following  is  the  passage  from 
the  great  Cardinal's  "  De  Laicis,"  as  translated 
by  Filmer  himself: 

Secular  or  civil  power  is  instituted  by  men ;  it  is  in  the  people 
unless  they  bestow  it  on  a  prince.  This  power  is  immediately 
in  the  whole  multitude  as  in  the  subject  of  it.  For  this  power 
is  in  the  Divine  law,  but  the  Divine  law  hath  given  this  power 
to  no  particular  man ;  if  the  positive  law  is  taken  away,  there 
is  left  no  reason  why  amongst  a  multitude  (who  are  equal) 
one  rather  than  another  should  bear  rule  over  the  rest.  Power 
is  given  by  the  multitude  to  one  man  or  to  more  by  the  same 
law  of  nature;  for  the  commonwealth  cannot  exercise  this 
power,  therefore  it  is  bound  to  bestow  it  upon  some  one  man 
or  some  few.  It  depends  upon  the  consent  of  the  multitude  to 
ordain  over  themselves  a  king  or  consul  or  other  magistrates. 
And  if  there  be  a  lawful  cause,  the  multitude  may  change  the 
kingdom  into  an  aristocracy  or  democracy.^^ 

In  quoting  at  some  length  from  this  volume 
Professor  Rahilly  alludes  to  the  fact  that  Jeffer- 
son's own  copy  of  it  still  exists  in  the  Congres- 
sional Library,  and  that  there  certainly  can  be  no 
doubt  whatsoever  that  in  this  very  citation  from 
Bellarmine  there  "  is  comprised,"  to  adapt  the 

^'^  Studies,  June,  1919,  pp.  206,  207. 


CATHOLICS   AND   POLITICAL   DEMOCRACY       279 

words  of  Filmer  to  more  recent  times,  *'  the 
strength  of  all  that  Jefferson  or  Mason  could  ever 
have  read  or  heard  produced  for  the  natural  lib- 
erty of  the  subject."  So  that  the  suggestion  is  not 
in  the  least  far-fetched  when  it  is  hinted  that  these 
very  citations  from  the  Catholic  schools  directly 
"  influenced  Mason  in  writing  the  Virginia  Bill 
of  Rights  and  Jefferson  in  drafting  the  Declara- 
tion of  Independence."  We  can  nowise  doubt, 
therefore,  that  the  democracy  of  the  United  States, 
like  all  other  forms  of  sound  modern  democracy, 
was  indirectly  derived  from  them.  In  the  days 
of  the  Reformation  there  was  certainly  no  hesi- 
tation in  the  minds  of  men  as  to  the  "  popish  " 
origin  of  the  "  damnable  doctrine  "  of  democracy, 
nor  can  there  be  any  reasonable  doubt  of  it  to- 
day. 

The  expression  of  this  democracy  can  be  traced, 
in  greater  or  less  perfection  throughout  the  en- 
tire period  of  the  Middle  Ages :  in  the  great  re- 
ligious orders  with  their  systems  of  representa- 
tion; in  the  popular  organizations  of  the  gilds  with 
their  industrial  jurisdiction  sanctioned  by  the  State ; 
in  numberless  city  democracies  that  were  based 
upon  gild  organizations  and  maintained  their  own 
self-government;  in  the  free  town-republics  of  Ger- 
many, in  the  splendid  Catholic  cantons  of  Switzer- 
land, in  the  independent  provinces  of  Spain,  in  the 
cities  of  the  Netherlands,  and  in  the  towns  of  the 
Lombard  League,   established  in   11 68   and  de- 


28o  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

fended  so  successfully  in  their  democratic  freedom 
by  the  great  Pope  Alexander  III,  whose  memory 
still  remains  in  the  name  of  Alessandria.^^ 

Particularly  valuable  as  a  training  for  democ- 
racy were  the  early  Church  councils  in  the  various 
sections  of  Europe.  The  Council  of  Toledo,  in 
the  year  400,  dealt  with  civil  as  well  as  ecclesias- 
tical matters  and  was  deputed  to  act  as  the  equiv- 
alent of  a  National  Parliament  for  Spain.  The 
Spanish  people  did  not  fail  to  profit  by  this  guid- 
ance of  the  clergy,  with  the  result  that  we  find  a 
virile  democracy  putting  forth  its  claims  in  the 
independent  towns  of  Spain  early  in  the  twelfth 
century.  "  For  three  centuries  at  least  the  or- 
ganization of  the  free  cities  was  the  natural  out- 
let of  all  democratic  aspirations  of  the  people."  ^* 

The  spirit  of  democracy  ever  alive  within  the 
Catholic  Church  is  indeed  to-day  acknowledged 
in  places  where  we  might  least  expect  to  find  it.  It 
is  to  this  spirit  of  democracy  that  President  Wilson 
means  to  allude  when  he  speaks  of  the  Catholic 
Church  as  "  a  great  democracy."  Referring  to 
the  Middle  Ages,  he  thus  writes  of  her  in  "  The 
New  Freedom  " : 

The  Roman  Church  was  then,  as  it  is  now,  a  great  democ- 
racy. There  was  no  peasant  so  humble  that  he  might  not  be- 
come Pope  of  Christendom;   and  every  chancellery  in  Europe, 

13 J.  A.  Dewe,  "Medieval  and  Modern  History,"  p.  119. 
14  "  Types  of  Democracy  among  Catholics,"  The  Catholic  Mag- 
azine for  South  Africa. 


CATHOLICS   AND   POLITICAL   DEMOCRACY       28 1 

every  court  in  Europe,  was  ruled  by  these  learned,  trained  and 
accomplished  men,  the  priesthood  of  that  great  and  dominant 
body.  What  kept  government  alive  in  the  Middle  Ages  was 
this  constant  rise  of  the  sap  from  the  bottom,  from  the  rank  and 
file  of  the  great  body  of  the  people  through  the  open  channels 
of  the  priesthood.^5 

Most  interesting  of  all  is  the  testimony  of  Dr. 
Paul  Rohrbach,  who  in  "  The  German  Idea  in 
the  World  "  widely  distributed  during  the  World 
War,  attacked  the  Catholic  Church,  because  by 
its  spirit  of  democracy  it  impeded  the  propaga- 
tion of  the  idea  of  imperialistic  autocracy.  "  The 
religio-democratic  pulse  which  at  the  present 
time  beats  in  Catholicism,  at  least  here  in  Ger- 
many," he  wrote,  "  contributes  to  the  weakness  of 
German  ideals."  No  more  glorious  tribute  could 
have  been  given  to  the  Cathohcs  of  Germany,  and 
to  the  Catholic  Church  throughout  the  world. 

It  was  owing  solely  to  the  doctrine  and  influ- 
ence of  the  Church  that,  as  W.  S.  Lilly  says: 
"  The  notion  of  unlimited  dominion,  of  Caesarism, 
autocratic  or  democratic  —  perhaps  the  most  bane- 
ful manifestation  of  human  selfishness  —  had  no 
place  among  its  political  conceptions,  which  re- 
garded authority  as  limited  and  fiduciary:  nor  did 
it  allow  of  absolutism  in  property."  ^* 

Attention  should  finally  be  called  here  to  the 
many  resemblances  between  the  Government  of 
the   United  States   and   the  government   of  the 

15  Pp.  85,  86. 

16  "  Christianity  and  Modern  Civilization,"  pp.  i6o,  161. 


2  82  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

Catholic  Church,  wherever  the  spirit  of  democ- 
racy finds  its  truest  expression.  In  the  words  of 
the  Rt.  Rev.  John  P.  Carroll,  D.D.: 

The  government  of  the  Church.has  many  points  of  resemblance 
■with  our  own  republican  form  of  government.  The  Pope,  like 
the  President,  is  elected.  Bishops  are  appointed  by  the  Pope,  but 
only  after  the  priests  and  bishops  of  the  territory  concerned  are 
heard,  just  as  justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  and  Federal  judges 
are  appointed  by  the  President,  but  not  without  the  approval  of 
the  United  States  Senate.  The  Ecumenical  Council,  the  supreme 
law-making  body  in  the  Church,  made  up  of  the  Pope  and  the 
Bishops,  resembles  the  American  Congress,  composed  of  dele- 
gates from  the  various  States,  with  the  President  at  their  head. 
The  Pope's  college  of  Cardinals  is  like  the  President's  Cabinet. 
The  members  of  the  Cabinet  are  the  heads  of  various  depart- 
ments of  the  administration,  just  as  the  Cardinals  in  the  Roman 
Curia  are  heads  of  the  various  Congregations  which  transact 
the  business  of  the  Universal  Church.  Every  American  citizen 
has  access  to  the  supreme  tribunal  at  Washington.  So  the  hum- 
blest child  of  the  Church  has  the  right  of  appeal  to  the  highest 
court  in  Rome,  and  no  question  is  decided  until  it  has  been  given 
the  fullest  consideration. 

Dr.  Charles  Phineas  Sherman  in  his  three 
volumes  on  "  Roman  Law  in  the  Modern  World  " 
traces  the  conception  of  modern  liberty  to  the 
Catholic  Canon  Law  and  to  St.  Thomas  and  the 
Catholic  schools.  His  theory  that  these  them- 
selves derived  it  from  Roman  civil  law  is  un- 
founded, since  the  latter  has  merely  been  used  as 
the  support  of  modern  autocracy.  To  sum  up 
therefore  the  conclusions  arrived  at  here  we  can 
do  no  better  than  to  refer  once  more  to  the  first 
of  the  articles  by  Professor  Alfred  Rahilley: 


CATHOLICS   AND   POLITICAL   DEMOCRACY       283 

"  Such  then  are  the  seed-thoughts  and  the  em- 
bryo-outlines of  democracy  which  we  owe  to  Cath- 
olic civilization  and  culture.  The  great  Church 
Councils  for  over  eight  centuries  slowly  trained  Eu- 
rope in  the  theory  and  practice  of  self-govern- 
ment, finally  eventuating  in  commune,  cortes,  par- 
liament and  states-general.  The  organization  of 
the  Church  —  the  representation  of  cathedral  and 
collegiate  chapters,  the  appointment  of  proctors, 
above  all  the  democracy  of  the  friars  —  showed 
the  way  to  secular  States.  The  discussions  con- 
cerning the  structure  of  the  Church  formed  for 
nearly  three  centuries  the  great  polemic  of  the 
West  and  thus  inaugurated  and  habituated  in  men's 
minds  those  categories  of  political  thought  whose 
inheritors  we  are  to-day.  And  all  the  while  there 
flowed  that  stream  of  deep,  patient  thinkers  who, 
from  Thomas  of  Aquino,  Nicholas  d'  Oresme, 
Antonius  of  Florence,  down  to  Almain,  Major, 
Bellarmine  and  Suarez,  upheld  the  ideal  of  popu- 
lar rights  and  government  by  consent.  It  was  the 
ideas  of  these  men  to  which  the  Catholics  of  the 
Ligue  made  their  appeal;  and  notwithstanding 
their  vehemence  and  passion,  their  ideals  were 
sound.  It  was  to  this  same  treasure  house  of  the 
past  that  the  French  Calvinists  turned  in  their  first 
and  short-lived  alliance  with  democracy.  And  it 
was  back  once  more  to  the  rock  whence  they  were 
hewn  that  the  Covenanters  and  Presbyterians 
turned  when  the  day  of  reckoning  came  for  the 


284  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

Stuarts.  From  the  annals  of  the  past,  from  Brac- 
ton  and  Fortescue,  from  forgotten  canonists, 
legists  and  schoolmen,  from  the  great  conciliar 
controversialists,  were  dragged  forth  principles 
which  shattered  forever  the  Reformation  tenet  of 
Divine  Right  and  traversing  the  ocean  founded  the 
American  Republic,  principles  whose  dynamic  pos- 
sibilities and  far-reaching  consequences  are  not  yet 
exhausted." 

It  is  no  surprise,  therefore,  to  read  the  state- 
ment by  Pope  Benedict  XV  to  Cardinal  Lucon, 
according  to  the  report  in  the  New  York  Sun, 
September  8,  1919 : 

The  great  outstanding  fact  in  the  world  to-day  is  the  ever- 
strengthening  current  everywhere  toward  democracy.  The  pro- 
letariat classes,  as  they  are  called,  having  taken  a  preponderant 
part  in  the  war,  desire  in  every  country  to  derive  therefrom  the 
maximum  advantage.  .  .  .  The  Catholic  Church  has  always 
loved  those  who  suffer  and  has  always  taught  that  public  power 
established  for  the  common  good  must  work  especially  to 
improve  conditions  for  those  who  suffer.  That  is  why  the 
Catholic  clergy  must  not  oppose  the  proletarian  revindications, 
but  must  favor  them,  provided  they  remain  within  the  limits 
of  honesty  and  justice. 

Good  words  these,  and  just  as  good  is  the 
Pope's  caution  against  the  excesses  of  those  who 
'*  to  the  detriment  of  everybody  would  overturn 
the  social  order  which  human  nature  renders  neces- 
sary." The  spirit  of  democracy  breathes  no- 
where more  freely  than  within  the  Catholic 
Church. 


CHAPTER     XXVII 

MODERN  CATHOLIC  GILD  PROGRAM 

OF  all  the  constructive  labor  movements 
that  at  the  close  of  the  war  are  sweeping 
over  the  world  in  a  mighty  wave  of  in- 
dustrial unrest,  there  is  not  one  whose  leaders  are 
not  inspired  by  the  supreme  idea  of  labor  organ- 
ization. Trade  unionism  and  the  cooperative 
movement,  Syndicalism  and  the  groupings  of  the 
I.  W.  W.,  gild  Socialism  and  the  Soviet  system  are 
but  different  and  often  hostile  phases  of  the  same 
world-wide  labor  agitation  that  is  steadily  gather- 
ing to  a  crest  and  moving  on  with  impetuous  force. 
Law-abiding  or  opposed  to  all  authority.  Christian 
or  relentlessly  determined  on  the  destruction  of 
all  religious  beliefs,  these  various  movements  still 
conform  with  one  another  in  a  vague  acceptance 
of  the  gild  idea. 

Anarchism  cannot  be  reckoned  among  the 
world's  constructive  forces.  Though  it  may 
blend  with  other  movements  and  even  for  the  time 
adopt  their  purposes,  it  remains,  as  its  name  im- 
plies, a  pure  negation.  Its  immediate  object  is 
neither  more  nor  less  than  the  annihilation  of  the 
entire  existing  order  of  society.  Out  of  the  ashes 
of  the  old  world,  sunk  in  flame  and  ruin,  a  new  or- 

285 


286  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

der  Is  phenix-like  to  arise  in  liberty,  youth  and 
beauty.  Destruction  is  sufficient  for  to-day.  The 
morrow  will  provide  for  itself.  Such  was  the 
principle  of  its  founder,  Bakounin.  The  construc- 
tive ideas  that  its  ardent  champions  claim  for  it 
are  nothing  more  than  a  mere  general  license, 
with  no  authority  of  God  or  man  to  hold  it  in 
restraint. 

Socialism,  too,  while  allied  with  a  thousand 
plans  that  are  not  of  its  own  origin  or  being,  con- 
tains but  one  vague  constructive  thought:  The 
more  or  less  common  ownership  of  the  means  of 
production  and  distribution.  How  far  this  shall 
be  effected,  how  it  shall  be  carried  out,  and  what 
shall  be  its  future  details,  no  one  is  qualified  to  say. 
We  do  not  marvel,  therefore,  that  Socialism  has 
been  the  prolific  breeding  place  of  every  variety  of 
radical  thought.  Countless  numbers  of  its  lead- 
ers, and  of  its  rank  and  file  have  steadily  drifted  to 
the  gild  idea,  which  many  of  its  own  members  now 
conceive  to  be  the  only  practical  working  plan. 

Men  realize  that  the  outcome  of  Socialism  can 
be  nothing  but  tyranny.  This  was  again  fully 
evinced  in  its  ultimate  development,  Bolshevism. 
Speaking  of  the  philosophy  of  the  Russian  Bol- 
shevists, the  American  Secretary  of  Labor,  the 
Hon.  William  B.  Wilson,  rightly  said: 

The  will  of  the  majority  is  as  objectionable  to  them  as  it 
was  to  the  Kaiser  or  the  Tsar.  It  establishes  a  dictatorship  on 
the  plea  that  the  autocrat  knows  better  what  is  best  for  the  people 


MODERN    CATHOLIC   GILD   PROGRAM       287 

than  they  themselves  know.  It  sets  up  a  close  dictatorship  which 
demands  obligatory  labor  service.  The  worker  sacrifices  his 
own  free  will.  Whether  he  likes  his  employment  or  not  —  what- 
ever may  be  his  desire  to  move,  he  cannot  do  so,  without  per- 
mission of  the  dictator.  He  cannot  change  the  conditions  of  his 
employment,  he  must  not  quit,  because  of  the  merciless  "  dicta- 
torship of  individuals  for  definite  processes  of  work." 

This  dictatorship  would  control  the  courts  which  are  to  be 
used  as  a  means  of  discipline  that  will  consider  responsibility 
for  the  "  pangs  of  famine  and  unemployment  to  be  visited  upon 
those  who  fail  to  produce  bread  for  men  and  fuel  for  industry." 

The  public  press  is  to  be  systematically  repressed  or  con- 
trolled. Nothing  is  to  reach  the  attention  of  the  masses  except 
that  which  has  been  prepared  for  them. 

The  gild  system,  then,  under  one  form  or  an- 
other, is  doubtless  the  most  important  social  sug- 
gestion for  our  own  time,  and  indeed  for  any  stage 
of  industrial  development.  It  is  the  one  unfailing 
means  of  self-help  that  labor  possesses.  The  first 
true  conception  of  the  craft-gild  idea  was  given  to 
the  world  by  the  Catholic  Church.  We  are  not 
therefore  surprised  that  in  assigning  the  causes  of 
our  modern  social  disorders  Pope  Leo  XIII  sig- 
nificantly singled  out  before  all  others  the  aboli- 
tion of  the  gilds :  "  For  the  ancient  working- 
men's  gilds  were  abolished  in  the  last  century,  and 
no  other  organization  took  their  place."  ^  So, 
too,  in  the  work  of  reconstruction  he  naturally 
placed  the  greatest  stress  upon  their  speedy  res- 
toration. It  will  be  easy  for  working  men  to 
solve  aright  the  question  of  the  hour,  he  tells 

i"On  the  Condition  of  the  Working  Classes."  See  A.  C. 
Breig,  "  Papal  Program  of  Social  Reform,"  p.  10. 


288  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

them,  "  if  they  will  form  associations,  choose  wise 
guides  and  follow  on  the  path  which  with  so  much 
advantage  to  themselves  and  the  commonwealth 
was  trodden  by  their  fathers  before  them."  ^  The 
utmost  betterment  of  the  condition  of  each  indi- 
vidual member  "  in  body,  mind  and  property,"  ^ 
is  the  purpose  for  which  these  gilds  are  to  be 
founded.  But  for  their  success  religion  is  as  es- 
sential to-day  as  in  the  days  of  old.  It  is  true 
that  the  outline  of  these  new  organizations  drawn 
by  Pope  Leo  in  his  Encyclical  on  "  The  Condition 
of  the  Working  Classes,"  is  suggestive  merely  of 
an  ideal  Christian  labor  unionism,  such  as  alone 
was  practical  at  the  time  of  his  writing.  This 
does  not  preclude  a  far  closer  approximation  to 
the  medieval  gild  system.  He  purposely  refrains 
from  adding  more  specific  details,  since  the  latter, 
as  he  wisely  remarks,  must  of  necessity  vary  with 
time,  and  place,  and  circumstances : 

We  do  not  judge  it  expedient  to  enter  into  minute  particulars 
touching  the  subject  of  organization:  this  must  depend  on  na- 
tional character,  on  practice  and  experience,  on  the  nature  and 
aim  of  the  work  to  be  done,  on  the  scope  of  the  various  trades 
and  employments,  and  on  other  circumstances  of  fact  and  of 
time:  all  of  which  should  be  carefully  considered.* 

Following  the  example  of  his  predecessor,  Pope 
Pius  X,  too,  called  attention  above  all  to  the  need 

'^Ibid.,  p.  56. 

8  Ibid.,  pp.  53,  54. 

*Ibid.,  p.  53. 


MODERN   CATHOLIC   GILD   PROGRAM       289 

of  worklngmen's  unions.  He,  too,  reminded  men 
that  social  science  is  not  of  yesterday,  that  no  new 
civilization  Is  to  be  invented  and  no  city  to  be 
built  in  the  clouds;  that  the  successful  organizations 
established  in  the  past,  under  the  wise  coopera- 
tion of  Church  and  State,  are  of  far  more  than 
historic  interest.  Writing  to  the  Archbishops  and 
Bishops  of  France,  he  thus  Instructed  them  in  this 
regard: 

It  will  be  enough  to  take  up  again,  with  the  help  of  true 
workers  for  social  restoration,  the  organisms  broken  by  the 
Revolution,  and  to  adapt  them  to  the  new  situation  created  by 
the  material  evolution  of  contemporary  society  in  the  same 
Christian  spirit  which  of  old  inspired  them.  For  the  true 
friends  of  the  people  are  neither  revolutionists,  nor  innovators, 
but  traditionalists.^ 

Urgently  as  he  recommends  the  gild  ideal,  his 
greatest  stress  Is  placed  upon  the  need  of  adapta- 
tion, the  need  of  carefully  availing  ourselves  of 
*'  all  the  practical  methods  furnished  at  the  pres- 
ent day  by  progress  in  social  and  economic 
studies."  This  thought  is  even  more  clearly  ex- 
pressed In  his  letter  to  the  Bishops  of  Italy,  June 
II,  1905: 

It  is  impossible  at  the  present  day  to  reestablish  in  the  same 
form  all  the  institutions  which  may  have  been  useful,  and  were 
even  the  only  eflRcient  ones  in  past  centuries,  so  numerous  are 
the  radical  modifications  which  time  has  brought  to  society  and 
life,  and  so  many  are  the  fresh  needs  which  changing  circum- 

^  Letter  to  Archbishops  and  Bishops  of  France,  August  25, 
1 9 10. 


290  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

stances  cease  not  to  call  forth.  But  the  Church  throughout  her 
long  history  has  always  and  on  every  occasion  luminously  shown 
that  she  possesses  a  wonderful  power  of  adaptation  to  the  vary- 
ing conditions  of  civil  society,  without  injury  to  the  integrity 
or  immutability  of  faith  or  morals.^ 

For  a  brief  but  complete  summary  of  all  that 
has  hitherto  been  said  we  may  turn  to  the  Encycli- 
cal of  Leo  XIII  on  "  The  Condition  of  the  Work- 
ing Classes."  Referring  to  the  various  associa- 
tions and  organizations  that  can  be  created  for  the 
benefit  of  the  laborer,  he  concludes : 

The  most  important  of  all  are  workingmen's  unions ;  for  these 
virtually  include  all  the  rest.  History  attests  what  excellent 
results  were  brought  about  by  the  craft  gilds  of  olden  times. 
They  were  the  means  of  affording  not  only  many  advantages 
to  the  workingmen,  but  in  no  small  degree  of  promoting  the 
advancement  of  art,  as  numerous  monuments  remain  to  bear 
witness.  Such  unions  should  be  suited  to  the  requirements  of 
this  our  age,  an  age  of  wider  education,  of  different  habits,  and 
of  far  more  numerous  requirements  in  daily  life.^ 

But  neither  Leo  XIII  nor  Pius  X  could  have 
foreseen  the  rapidity  with  which  social  develop- 
ments were  accelerated  by  the  stirring  events  of 
the  World  War.  The  slow  material  evolution  of 
centuries  was  then  compressed  within  as  many 
years  of  energetic,  throbbing  life,  of  revolutionary 
and  often  misdirected  social  action.  Yet  it  was 
all  finally  to  aid  in  bringing  the  world  nearer  to 
the  ideals  of  the  Middle  Ages,  in  making  possible 

«  "  On  Christian  Social  Reform,"  Catholic  Social  Guild  Pam- 
phlets, pp.  18,  19. 
">  Cnf.  Breig,  p.  48. 


MODERN    CATHOLIC    GILD    PROGRAM        29 1 

a  closer  approximation  of  the  Catholic  gild  sys- 
tem than  even  Leo  XIII,  with  all  his  marvelous 
insight  into  the  social  developments  of  the  fu- 
ture, could  have  considered  feasible.  He  has  not, 
however,  failed  to  leave  provision  for  even  this 
situation.  We  need  but  turn  again  to  the  final 
norm  by  which,  as  he  says,  every  labor  organiza- 
tion of  the  future  must  be  tested  and  found  true 
or  wanting: 

To  sum  up,  then,  we  may  lay  it  down  as  a  general  and  last- 
ing law,  that  workingmen's  associations  should  be  so  organized 
and  governed  as  to  furnish  the  best  and  most  suitable  means  for 
attaining  what  is  aimed  at,  that  is  to  say,  for  helping  each  in- 
dividual member  to  better  his  condition  to  the  utmost  in  body, 
mind  and  property.^ 

This  ideal  was  strictly  kept  in  view  in  the  pro- 
gram of  social  reconstruction  drawn  up  by  the  Ad- 
ministrative Committee  of  the  National  Catholic 
War  Council,  January,  19 19,  and  later  incorpo- 
rated in  the  Congressional  Record  of  the  United 
States.  That  suggestions  occur  here  which  were 
never  formally  included  in  the  Encyclicals  of  Leo 
XIII  or  Pius  X  need  not  startle  anyone.  They 
are  not  the  less  surely  contained  in  that  "  general 
and  lasting  law  "  of  the  great  "  Pope  of  the  Work- 
ingmen  "  which  was  just  quoted.  In  the  recon- 
structive program,  stamped  with  the  seal  of  the 
Hierarchy  of  the  United  States,  can  be  found  the 
consummation  of  the  gild  idea.  In  their  most 
vital  passage  the  Bishops  say: 

«Ibid.,  pp.  53,  54. 


292  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

The  full  possibilities  of  increased  production  will  not  be 
realized  so  long  as  the  majority  of  the  workers  remain  mere 
wage-earners.  The  majority  must  somehow  become  owners,  or 
at  least  in  part,  of  the  means  of  production.  They  can  be 
enabled  to  reach  this  stage  gradually  through  cooperative  pro- 
ductive societies  and  copartnership  arrangements.  In  the  for- 
mer the  workers  own  and  manage  the  industries  themselves; 
in  the  latter  they  own  a  substantial  part  of  the  corporate  stock 
and  exercise  a  reasonable  share  in  the  management.  However 
slow  the  attainment  of  these  ends  they  will  have  to  be  reached 
before  we  can  have  a  thoroughly  efficient  system  of  production, 
or  an  industrial  social  order  that  will  be  secure  from  the  danger 
of  revolution." 

Such  is  the  aim  of  the  new  Catholic  gild  sys- 
tem. No  one  maintains  that  these  developments 
are  possible  without  wisely  directed  labor  organi- 
zations, both  where  there  is  question  of  establish- 
ing cooperative  productive  societies  —  a  true  gild 
ideal  —  or  of  merely  sharing  in  the  management 
of  industries,  obviously  through  the  representa- 
tives of  craft  gilds.  Such,  too,  is  clearly  the  mean- 
ing of  the  Bishops,  who  strongly  vindicate  the  right 
of  labor  "  to  organize  and  to  deal  with  employers 
through  representatives,"  and  heartily  approve  of 
the  establishment  of  shop  committees,  "  working 
wherever  possible  with  the  trade  union."  ^°  That 
such  methods  will  imply  "  to  a  great  extent  the 
abolition  of  the  wage-system,"  they  candidly  con- 
fess, but  their  main  purpose  is  the  increase   of 

• "  Social  Reconstruction."  Reconstruction  Pamphlets,  No.  i, 
p.  22. 

^°Ibid.,  p.  19. 


MODERN    CATHOLIC    GILD    PROGRAM        293 

private  productive  ownership  and  so  the  most  per- 
fect attainment  of  the  supreme  gild  ideal  proposed 
by  Leo  XIII:  the  betterment  of  the  condition  of 
each  individual  member  "  to  the  utmost  in  body, 
mind  and  property."  In  the  words  of  Pope  Pius 
X,  they  are  "  neither  revolutionists,  nor  innova- 
tors, but  traditionaHsts."  And  with  these  great 
Pontiffs  they,  too,  understand  that  no  program  of 
labor  can  be  finally  successful  that  is  not  inspired 
by  true  religious  ideals.  Here  is  the  great  need 
of  the  future. 


CHAPTER     XXVIII 

THE  GREAT  CATASTROPHE 

THE  Reformation,  as  every  intelligent  and 
impartial  student  of  history  will  now 
freely  admit,  was  not  primarily  a  re- 
ligious, but  an  economic  revolution.  It  took  root, 
as  a  non-Catholic  clergyman  recently  expressed  it 
to  the  writer,  in  autocracies  only.  It  relied  en- 
tirely upon  the  favor  of  the  powerful  secular  lords, 
who  gladly  disguised  their  personal  greed  and  am- 
bition under  the  cloak  of  religion.  The  poor,  as 
even  men  like  Harnack  confess,  were  to  be  the 
great  sufferers.  "  Politically  and  socially,"  writes 
Dr.  Cram,  "  the  inevitable  outcome  of  the  Renais- 
sance and  Reformation  was  absolutism  and  tyr- 
anny, with  force  as  the  one  recognized  arbiter  of 
action."  ^  That  such  statements  are  matters  of 
fact  that  can  no  longer  give  offense  to  open-minded 
Protestants  shows  the  progress  that  has  been  made 
towards  a  better  understanding  of  history. 

It  is  equally  admitted  by  Catholics,  in  their  own 
regard,  that  grave  abuses  existed  at  this  time 
in  the  Church,  not  doctrinally,  since  her  teaching 
has  never  changed  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles, 
but  on  the  part  of  many  of  her  members.     In 

1 "  The  Sins  of  the  Fathers,"  p.  9. 
294 


THE    GREAT    CATASTROPHE  29^ 

England  and  in  Germany,  the  two  great  Reforma- 
tion countries,  the  Church  was  suffering  at  the 
same  time  both  from  a  plethora  of  wealth  and  an 
anemia  of  poverty.  A  vast  proportion  of  the 
landed  property  of  these  countries  had  been  gath- 
ered into  the  hands  of  ecclesiastical  lords  who 
often  took  but  little  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the 
souls  entrusted  to  their  care.  Abbeys  and  con- 
vents were  not  unfrequently  tinctured  with  world- 
liness.  In  the  mean  time  deserving  priests  were, 
in  too  many  instances,  but  poorly  and  inadequately 
provided  for.  Such  conditions  lent  themselves  ad- 
mirably to  the  caustic  pen  of  the  satirist  and  the 
misdirected  attacks  of  the  reformer.  The  fault, 
where  it  existed,  was  not  that  of  religion,  but  of 
politics.  It  was  not  a  question  of  the  Church  in- 
terfering with  the  State,  but  the  time-worn  story 
of  the  State  interfering  with  the  Church.  As 
Cardinal  Gasquet  writes  of  the  time  of  Henry 
VIII: 

The  bishops  were,  with  some  honorable  exceptions,  chosen  by 
royal  favor  rather  than  for  spiritual  qualifications.  However 
personally  good  they  may  have  been,  they  were  not  ideal  pas- 
tors of  their  flocks.  Place-seeking,  too,  often  kept  many  of  the 
lords  spiritual  at  court,  that  they  might  gain  or  maintain  in- 
fluence sufficient  to  support  their  claims  to  further  preferment. 
The  occupation  of  bishops  over  much  in  the  affairs  of  the  na- 
tion, besides  its  evident  effect  on  the  state  of  clerical  discipline, 
had  another  result.  It  created  in  the  minds  of  the  new  nobility 
a  jealous  opposition  to  ecclesiastics,  and  a  readiness  to  humble 
the  power  of  the  Church  by  passing  measures  in  restraint  of  its 
ancient  liberties.^ 

2 "The  Last  Abbot  of  Glastonbury,"  pp.  25,  26. 


296  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

Similar  precisely  was  the  dark  side  of  the  pic- 
ture in  Germany,  as  presented  by  Janssen,  a  most 
impartial  historian.  Men  had  in  many  instances 
flagrantly  failed  to  observe  the  teachings  of  the 
Church,  and  avarice  became  the  besetting  sin  of 
the  day.  Neither  had  the  clergy  themselves  al- 
ways been  loyal  to  the  spirit  of  their  Divine  Mas- 
ter and  the  high  ideals  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount: 

The  lower  orders  of  parochial  clergy,  whose  merely  nominal 
stipends  were  derived  from  the  many  precarious  tithes,  were 
often  compelled  by  poverty,  if  not  tempted  by  avarice,  to  work 
at  some  trade  which  was  quite  inconsistent  with  their  position, 
and  which  exposed  them  to  the  contempt  of  their  parishioners. 
The  higher  ecclesiastical  orders,  on  the  other  hand,  enjoyed 
abundant  and  superfluous  wealth,  which  many  of  them  had  no 
scruple  of  parading  in  such  an  offensive  manner  as  to  provoke 
the  indignation  of  the  people,  the  jealousy  of  the  upper  classes, 
and  the  scorn  of  all  serious  mlnds.^ 

Here  then  we  have  plainly  stated  the  worst 
side  of  the  case.  Moral  delinquencies  were  ob- 
viously not  wanting,  and  we  must  add  in  fine,  as 
Cardinal  Manning  suggests,  the  distraction  caused 
shortly  before  in  the  minds  of  men  by  the  great 
Western  Schism. 

But  this  is  not  the  entire  picture,  nor  does  it  in 
any  way  represent  the  Church  herself.  Ham- 
pered by  the  evil  of  State  interference  which 
thrust  into  the  place  of  the  chosen  shepherds  of 
her  flock  worldly-minded  princes  and  court  favor- 

»"  History  of  the  German  People,"  II,  p.  293. 


THE    GREAT    CATASTROPHE  297 

ites,  she  still  continued  as  before  in  her  work  of 
charity  and  in  her  fearless  vindication  of  the  prin- 
ciples of  social  justice,  while  preaching  the  pure 
Gospel  of  Christ  as  she  had  done  in  the  centuries 
past.  Sanctity  had  not  departed  from  her  relig- 
ious orders  because  some  of  their  members  had 
fallen  into  laxity,  nor  was  zeal  for  the  cause  of 
God  and  of  his  poor  less  truly  the  dominant  char- 
acteristic of  the  Church  because  some  of  her  pas- 
tors had  been  found  unworthy. 

It  was  but  the  fulfilment  of  Christ's  prophecy 
that  the  tares  should  be  permitted  to  grow  up 
with  the  wheat,  and  that  the  net  of  His  Church 
should  hold  alike  the  good  and  the  bad  until  the 
time  of  final  separation.  So  it  has  always  been 
from  the  days  of  the  Apostles,  and  so  it  will  re- 
main. But  it  is  also  true  that  there  are  periods 
of  more  than  usual  delinquency.  Such  was  the 
case  in  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  "  Re- 
formation." Unhappily,  in  place  of  seeking  to 
conform  the  lives  of  men  more  perfectly  to  the 
true  Faith  of  their  fathers,  a  new  religion  was  sub- 
stituted in  its  stead.  Here,  as  is  now  more  clearly 
seen  than  ever  before,  was  the  beginning  of  all  our 
economic  evils.  Ralph  Adams  Cram  thus  briefly 
states  the  case : 

For  300  years,  generation  after  generation  has  been  fed  on 
the  shameless  fiction  of  historians  and  theologians  until  it  is 
bred  in  the  bone  that  the  Reformation,  the  suppression  of  the 
monasteries,   the    Huguenot   revolt,    etc.,    were    godly    acts   that 


298  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

formed  the  everlasting  cornerstones  of  modern  civilization. 
They  were:  but  what  that  civilization  was  we  are  now  finding 
out  and  paying  for  at  a  price  never  exacted  before  since  Im- 
perial Rome  paid  in  the  same  coin.^ 

To  have  these  facts  made  clear  in  the  minds  of 
men,  and  to  know  that  such  statements  can  no 
longer  be  looked  upon  with  suspicion,  as  the  prod- 
uct of  Catholic  zeal  or  of  an  artistic  or  intellectual 
partiality  for  medievalism,  is  a  distinct  gain,  eco- 
nomically no  less  than  culturally.  As  Muezzin 
writes  in  the  London  Athenaum: 

Man  in  the  Middle  Ages  somehow  held  the  clue  to  a  happi- 
ness and  a  harmony  that  we  have  lost.  Life  had  a  meaning 
for  him  which  transcended  the  desires  of  the  flesh  and  the 
promptings  of  self-interest;  his  universe  was  charged  with  in- 
telligible and  blessed  purpose;  and  his  work,  which  was  con- 
secrated to  the  service  of  that  meaning  and  that  purpose,  was 
crowned  with  such  exuberance  of  joy  and  beauty  that  the  ca- 
thedrals, abbeys  and  churches  of  his  creation  tease  us  moderns 
out  of  thought,  so  sublime  they  seem,  so  unattainable  to  the 
more  accomplished,  more  learned  craftsman  of  to-day.^ 

The  greater  accomplishment  and  learning  of  the 
modern  laborer,  where  this  may  be  said  to  exist, 
is  merely  upon  the  surface.  Culturally  the 
medieval  craftsman  was  immeasurably  superior  to 
the  average  workman  of  to-day.  Education  is  of 
the  whole  man,  and  such  an  education  the  medieval 
craftsman  enjoyed  in  his  religion  and  his  churches, 
as  well  as  in  his  gilds  and  his  craft.     The  most 

*  "The  Sins  of  the  Fathers,"  p.  96. 
'  May,  1917,  p.  223. 


THE    GREAT   CATASTROPHE  299 

striking  and  obvious  fact  of  these  ages,  as  the 
writer  last  quoted  remarks,  is  "  the  universality 
of  the  feeling  and  appreciation  for  beauty." 
Beauty  dwelled  with  men  and  walked  with  them 
and  found  expression  at  their  touch.  The  things 
of  the  spirit  were  then  shared  by  all  and  expressed 
by  all.  "  Those  prayers  in  stone,  which  are  so 
marvelous  in  the  eyes  of  posterity,  were  not  built 
by  highly  paid  specialists,  but  by  the  common  peo- 
ple themselves,  who  enriched  their  handiwork  with 
a  thousand  blossoms  of  their  quaint  and  untutored 
imagination."  *  Such  was  the  perfection  of  dem- 
ocratic industry,  its  flower,  and  glory,  and  joy. 

'*  In  those  times  and  in  that  society  the  trinity 
of  the  human  spirit,  beauty,  truth  and  love,  was 
a  trinity  in  unity,"  the  unity  of  one  Catholic  Faith. 
All  this  was  swept  away  by  the  Reformation, 
through  the  instrumentality  of  autocratic  rulers  to 
whose  grasping  greed  the  people  were  mercilessly 
delivered,  to  fall  an  easy  prey,  subsequently,  to  the 
no  less  merciless  autocracy  of  that  capitalism  which 
now  was  given  birth. 

The  sickness  which  had  broken  out  in  the  social 
organism,  previous  to  the  Reformation,  was  not 
unto  death,  nor  did  it  at  all  effect  the  entire  body. 
This  still  remained  sound.  A  local  remedy  only 
was  needed.  Luther  himself  was  forced  sadly  to 
admit  on  many  an  occasion  that  the  cities  of  Ger- 
many  which    most    eagerly   welcomed   him   had 

« Ibid. 


300  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

changed  for  the  worse  after  accepting  his  "  New 
Evangel."  '^  The  same  can  clearly  be  shown  to 
have  been  the  case  in  England,  where  the  Com- 
mons became  the  laboring  poor,^  and  in  every 
other  land  into  which  the  Reformation  entered. 
Catholic  countries  were  in  many  cases  hardly  less 
affected  by  the  reflex  of  the  disastrous  economic 
doctrines  which  now  gained  ground  as  the  corol- 
lary to  the  new  religious  theory  of  individualism. 
In  too  many  instances  the  State,  though  nominally 
Catholic,  hampered  the  Church  in  every  way  and 
made  impossible  her  free  social  activity,  while  the 
false  principles,  imported  from  abroad,  confused 
the  minds  of  men.  Hence  the  universality  of  the 
social  disorder,  as  wide-spread  as  had  once  been 
the  beneficent  influence  of  the  Church. 

The  width  and  breadth  and  depth  of  the  eco- 
nomic disaster  implied  in  the  Reformation  is  only 
now  beginning  to  be  understood.  "  We  talk  with 
a  great  deal  of  indignation  of  the  Tweed  ring," 
says  a  Protestant  divine,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jessopp,  in 
"  The  Great  Pillage,"  "  the  day  will  come  when 
some  one  will  write  the  story  of  two  other  rings : 
the  ring  of  the  miscreants  who  robbed  the  mon- 
asteries in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII  was  the  first; 

"^ "  Now  that  one  devil  has  been  driven  out,  seven  others, 
worse  than  the  former,  have  entered  into  us,  as  we  can  see  in 
princes,  lords,  nobles,  burghers,  and  peasants." — Luther's  words 
in  1529.  (Erlangen  Edition,  xxxvi,  p.  411.)  "What  Luther 
Taught,"  Chapter  IV. 

»  Cobbett. 


THE    GREAT    CATASTROPHE  3OI 

but  the  ring  of  the  robbers  who  robbed  the  poor 
and  helpless  in  the  reign  of  Edward  VI  was  ten 
times  worse  than  the  first." 

From  the  closing  of  the  monasteries,  as  the 
havens  of  all  human  miseries  and  the  open  inns 
of  God's  poor,  the  world  has  never  recovered: 

They  burnt  the  homes  of  the  shaven  men,  that  had  been  quaint 

and  kind, 
Till  there  was  no  bed  in  a  monk's  house,  nor  food  that  man 

could  find 
The  inns  of  God  where  no  man  paid,  that  were  the  walls  of 

the  weak, 
The  King's  Servants  ate  them  all.    And  still  we  did  not  speak. 

So  sang  Chesterton  of  the  first  of  the  great 
deeds  of  pillage  which  took  place  at  the  same  time 
with  the  looting  of  the  churches,  and  whose 
spiritual  consequences  extended  with  the  most 
dreadful  results  into  the  domain  of  economics. 
The  second  act  was  the  robbing  of  the  gild  prop- 
erty devoted  to  religious  purposes,  which  prac- 
tically implied  a  complete  act  of  confiscation,  since 
the  great  funds  which  the  gilds  devoted  to  works 
of  charity  and  similar  objects,  were  intimately  as- 
sociated with  religion  and  held  and  administered 
in  its  name.  Hence  the  writer  upon  "  Gilds  "  in 
the  non-Catholic  "  Encyclopedia  of  Religion  and 
Ethics"  rightly  affirms  that:  "The  Reforma- 
tion by  disendowing  the  religious  and  social  gilds 
and  crippling  the  organization  of  the  craft  gilds, 
prepared  the  way  for  Poor  Law  reform  and  the 


302  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

changes  in  the  industrial  revolution  which  were 
then  shaping."  The  immediate  consequences  of 
the  royal  pillage  are  thus  forcefully  described  by 
Dr.  Jessopp : 

Almshouses  in  which  old  men  and  women  were  fed  and 
clothed  were  robbed  to  the  last  pound,  the  poor  alms-folk  being 
turned  out  into  the  cold  at  an  hour's  warning  to  beg  their 
bread.  Hospitals  for  the  sick  and  needy,  sometimes  magnifi- 
cently provided  with  nurses  and  chaplains,  whose  very  raison 
d'etre  was  that  they  were  to  look  after  and  care  for  those  who 
were  past  caring  for  themselves  —  these  were  stripped  of  all 
their  belongings,  the  inmates  sent  out  to  hobble  into  some  con- 
venient dry  ditch  to  lie  down  and  die  in,  or  to  crawl  into  some 
barn  or  hovel  there  to  be  tended,  not  without  fear  of  conse- 
quences, by  some  kindly  man  or  woman  who  could  not  bear 
to  see  a  suffering  fellow  creature  drop  down  and  die  at  their 
own  doorposts.* 

The  same  results  followed  in  Germany,  and 
Luther's  complaints  that  people,  after  adopting 
the  "  true  "  religion  of  his  own  making  no  longer 
interested  themselves  in  charity  as  they  had  done 
before,  were  unavailing.  The  princes  and  their 
hirelings  had  eaten  up  and  spent  in  horses,  lux- 
uries and  vices  the  dowries  of  the  poor.  The 
people  had  no  mind  to  replace  them.  "  We  wish 
to  do  nothing  but  take  and  rob  by  force  what  oth- 
ers have  given  and  founded,"  Luther  exclaimed 
regretfully  of  the  work  begun  by  him." 

The  looting  of  the  gilds  began  with  the  act  of 
Parliament  of  Henry  VIII  entitled:     "An  acte 

»"The  Great  Pillage." 
lOErlangen  Ed.,  XLIII,  p.  164. 


THE    GREAT    CATASTROPHE  303 

for  dissolucion  of  colleges,  chauntries,  and  free 
chapelles,  at  the  king's  majestie's  pleasure,"  and 
was  brought  to  its  completion  in  the  next  reign 
when  the  new  act,  1  Edward  VI,  c.  XIV,  de- 
manded that:  "All  payments  by  corporations, 
misteryes  or  craftes,  for  priests'  obits  and  lamps," 
be  thenceforth  given  to  the  king.  The  law  itself 
was  entitled:  *'  An  acte  whereby  certaine  chaun- 
tries, colleges,  free  chapells  and  the  possessions 
of  the  same  be  given  to  the  king's  majestic." 
Writing  of  the  effect  of  these  acts,  in  his  work  on 
"  The  Livery  Companies  of  London,"  William 
Herbert  says: 

The  effects  of  the  Reformation  were  severely  felt  by  the 
livery  companies.  It  had  been  customary  in  making  gifts  and 
devises  to  these  societies  in  Catholic  times,  to  charge  such  gifts 
with  annual  payments,  for  supporting  chauntries  for  the  souls 
of  the  respective  donors;  and  as  scarcely  an  atom  of  property 
was  left  without  being  so  restricted,  at  a  period  when  the  sup- 
posed efficacy  of  these  religious  establishments  formed  part  of 
the  national  belief,  almost  the  whole  of  the  companies'  Trust 
Estates  became  liable,  at  the  Reformation,  to  change  masters 
with  the  change  of  religion.!^ 

What  was  true  of  these  companies,  which  rep- 
resented the  wealthier  middle  class,  was  all  the 
more  true  of  the  ordinary  craft  gild.  "  The 
powers  of  the  gilds,"  Professor  Cunningham  be- 
lieves, "  had  been  so  much  affected  by  the  legisla- 
tion of  Edward  VI  that  they  had  but  little  influ- 
ence for  good  or  evil."  ^^     Professor  Cheyney  con- 

"P.  113. 

12  "  Modern  Times,"  Part  I,  p.  26, 


304  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

siders  it  the  heaviest  blow  inflicted  on  the  gilds. ^^ 
Enormous  loans  were  next  exacted  of  the  com- 
panies and  a  number  of  "  sponging  expedients  " 
resorted  to,  by  which,  as  William  Herbert  says: 
"  That  *  mother  of  her  people,'  Elizabeth,  and 
afterwards  James  and  Charles,  contrived  to  screw 
from  the  companies  their  wealth."  ^*  When 
forced  loans  and  levies  had  been  pushed  as  far 
as  they  would  go,  Elizabeth  granted  "  patents  for 
monopolies  and  for  the  oversight  and  control  of 
different  trades."  Thus  in  1590  one  of  the 
Queen's  courtiers,  Edward  Darcy,  sued  and  ob- 
tained a  patent  against  a  Leathersellers'  Company. 
This  empowered  him  to  set  his  seal  upon  all  the 
leather  that  was  to  be  sold  in  England,  for  which 
"  he  sometimes  received  the  tenth  part,  the  ninth 
part,  the  seventh,  the  sixth,  the  fourth,  and  some- 
times, and  often,  the  third  part  of  the  value  of 
the  commodity."  ^^  We  are  not  therefore  sur- 
prised that  the  establishment  of  gilds  was  still  en- 
couraged in  Elizabeth's  reign.  They  were  a  con- 
stant s'ource  of  revenue  to  the  crown  or  the  cour- 
tiers. The  gilds  were  not  discontinued  at  once 
with  the  Reformation;  many  of  them  sufficiently 
recovered  from  the  confiscation  of  their  property 
after  redeeming  it  at  a  high  cost,  but  their  eco- 
nomic efficiency  was  a  thing  of  the  past.     This  is 

13 "  Industrial  and  Social  History,"  p.  158. 

1*  Herbert,  op.  cit.,  p.  119. 

IB  Stype's  Stow,  II,  293.     W.  Herbert. 


THE    GREAT    CATASTROPHE  305 

the  one  fact  to  be  borne  in  mind.  They  now 
gradually  passed  away  or  became  mere  capitalistic 
societies.  Their  soul  was  reft  from  them  with 
their  religion. 

The  way  was  now  open,  both  for  political  au- 
tocracy and  for  individualistic  capitalism.  What 
followed  is  too  well  known  to  call  for  description 
here.  The  domestic  system,  the  factory  system 
and  the  industrial  revolution  are  the  successive 
mile  stones.  With  each  step  forward  towards  a 
loudly  acclaimed  national  prosperity,  the  toiling 
masses  were  ground  more  helplessly  beneath  the 
feet  of  that  merciless  idol  of  modern  commercial- 
ism to  which  the  Reformation  had  surrendered 
them.  In  breaking  with  Catholicism,  as  Dr. 
Ralph  Adams  Cram  wisely  analyzes  the  process 
that  now  took  place,  religion  and  all  spiritual  in- 
terests and  principles  were  separated  from  the  eco- 
nomic and  material  phases  of  life : 

The  division  was  not  avowed,  indeed,  particularly  during 
the  Puritan  regime;  it  was  part  of  the  system  that  religion  and 
life  should  be  more  aggressively  at  one  than  at  any  time  since 
the  earlier  theocracy  of  the  Hebrews.  Under  the  Common- 
wealth in  England,  the  Puritan  tyranny  in  New  England,  and 
the  capitalistic  autocracy  in  Great  Britain,  it  was  practically 
impossible  to  draw  a  line  between  Church  and  State;  super- 
ficially it  seemed  as  if  the  identity,  or  rather  cooperation,  was 
more  perfect  than  at  any  time  during  the  Catholic  Middle  Ages. 
Certainly  the  abuses  of  power,  the  gross  infractions  of  liberty, 
the  negation  of  even  rudimentary  justice  in  legislation,  in  law 
and  in  society,  that  followed  from  this  apparent  union,  were 
more  aggravated  and  intolerable.    As  a  matter  of  fact,  however. 


306  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

the  alliance  was  only  between  a  formal  and  public  religion  and 
the  equally  formal  machinery  of  government ;  it  did  not  extend 
to  the  individual,  and  here,  in  his  domestic,  social,  business 
and  political  relations,  the  severance  was  almost  complete.  The 
typical  figure  in  Protestantism  is  Luther,  preaching  a  lofty 
doctrine  of  personal  union  with  God,  and  conniving  at  bigamy, 
adultery  and  the  massacre  of  starving  peasants;  and  the  pious 
iron-master  or  mill  magnate  of  Badford  or  Leeds,  zealously 
supporting  his  favorite  form  of  Evangelicalism,  pouring  out  his 
money  for  the  support  of  missions  to  heathen  countries  or  for 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  enforcing  the  strictest  Sabbatarianism 
in  his  own  household  —  and  fighting  in  Parliament  and  through 
the  press  for  the  right  to  continue  to  employ  little  children  of 
six  years  old  in  his  mines,  crawling  on  all  fours,  half  naked, 
dragging  carts  of  coal  by  ropes  around  their  tender  bodies,  or 
to  profit,  by  the  threat  of  starvation,  through  mill  hands  whose 
wages  were  a  miserable  pittance,  insufficient  to  keep  body  and 
soul  together,  and  who  were  forbidden  under  penalty  of  the 
law  to  combine  with  one  another  for  self-protection.*" 

The  industrial  slavery  that  fettered  the  city- 
laborer  after  the  Reformation  can  be  paralleled 
only  by  the  injustice  perpetrated  upon  the  land. 
Reference  has  already  been  made  to  Outhwaite's 
treatise  ^"^  which  tells  how  the  tenements  of  Glas- 
gow were  crowded,  "  because  3,600,000  acres  had 
been  turned  into  silent  sanctuaries  for  the  red 
deer."  So  the  English  farmer  was  driven  to  the 
slums  of  London  to  yield  place  to  the  Rothschild 
stag-hounds.  At  the  diet  of  Mecklenburg,  in 
1607,  as  Dollinger  informs  us,  the  peasants  were 
declared  mere  ciphers.  They  could  be  robbed  at 
pleasure  of  the  acres  their  forefathers  had  pos- 

16  "  ttjc  Sins  of  the  Fathers,"  pp.  94,  95. 
"  Chapter  XXV. 


THE    GREAT    CATASTROPHE  307 

sessed.  They  were  reduced  to  a  slavery  which 
differed  from  that  of  the  blacks  in  no  respect  ex- 
cept that  they  might  not  be  taken  from  their  fam- 
ilies and  sold  to  the  highest  bidder.  "  Yet  this 
law  was  often  eluded  and  the  serfs  were  often 
trafficked  like  horses  or  cows."  ^^ 

Basing  his  statements  upon  the  facts  gathered 
by  Dollinger,  Alfred  Baudrillart,  of  the  French 
Academy,  thus  summarizes  the  conditions  of  the 
European  peasantry  as  the  effect  of  the  Reforma- 
tion: 

The  introduction  of  the  Reformation  in  Pomerania  caused  the 
introduction  of  a  similar  slavery.  The  law  of  1616  decreed 
that  all  peasants  were  serfs  without  claims  of  any  sort 
Preachers  were  obliged  to  denounce  from  their  pulpits  the  peas- 
ants who  had  taken  flight.  ...  In  Sweden  the  liberty  of  the 
peasants  was  the  price  the  King  paid  for  the  assistance  of  the 
nobility  in  the  accomplishment  of  the  religious  revolution.  In 
Denmark  and  in  Norway  the  nobles  followed  this  example. 
In  Denmark  the  peasant  was  subjected  to  serfdom  like  a  dog. 
"Enforced  labor,"  says  the  historian  Allen,  "was  increased 
arbitrarily,  the  peasants  were  treated  like  serfs."  As  late  as 
1804,  personal  liberty  was  granted  to  20,000  families  of  serfs. 
.  .  .  In  Scandinavia,  as  in  Germany,  Luthgranism  <was  advan- 
tageous to  the  sovereign  and  the  aristocracy  only.^^ 

But  could  this  catastrophe  have  been  averted  by 
the  Church?  It  certainly  could  have  been.  As 
John  L.  and  Barbara  Hammond  state  the  case  in 
their  book  "  The  Town  Laborer  " : 

18 Baudrillart,  "The  Catholic  Church,  the  Renaissance  and 
Protestantism,"  p.  308 ;  Boll,  "  Histoire  de  Mecklembourg  ";  Dol- 
liirer,  "  Kirche  und  Kirchen." 

**  Op.  cit.,  pp.  308,  309,  312. 


308  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

Religion  in  one  form  or  another,  might  have  checked  this 
spirit  by  rescuing  society  from  a  materialistic  interpretation,  in- 
sisting on  the  conception  of  man  as  an  end  in  himself  (i.  e., 
dependently  upon  God),  and  refusing  to  surrender  that  revela- 
tion to  any  science  of  politics  or  any  law  of  trade.  Such  a  force 
was  implicit  in  the  medieval  religion  that  had  disappeared, 
good  and  bad  elements  alike,  at  the  Reformation.^o 

It  had  not  indeed  disappeared  with  the  Refor- 
mation, but  its  voice  had  for  the  time  been  disre- 
garded in  the  political  and  economic  life  of  the 
nations.  There  was  nothing  "  bad  "  in  the  ele- 
ments of  this  religion  itself.  The  evil  was  all, 
then  as  now,  in  the  hearts  of  men  and  in  their 
want  of  conformity  to  its  teachings.  By  the  un- 
happy separation  from  the  Church  founded  by 
Christ  upon  Peter  men  had  lost  the  one  and  only 
authority  that  could  with  certainty  guide  and  di- 
rect them  in  the  principles  of  social  justice  and  of 
charity.  Under  Catholicism,  however  unworthy 
individual  representatives  of  the  Church  might  at 
times  be  found,  the  principles  which  they  were 
obliged  to  admit  and  to  teach  ever  embodied  the 
true  spirit  of  Christian  brotherhood.  There  was 
consequently  not  merely  the  possibility,  but  the 
moral  certainty  of  reform. 

As  a  teaching  body,  the  clergy  remained  true  to 
the  unadulterated  Gospel  of  Christ.  The  doc- 
trine of  the  Church  insisted  upon  the  rights  of 
the  workingman,  the  just  and  reasonable  distri- 

20 "The  Town  Laborer,  1760-1832,"  pp.  328,  329. 


THE   GREAT   CATASTROPHE  309 

bution  of  earthly  goods,  and  the  universal  law  of 
helpfulness  and  brotherly  love.  It  repudiated  the 
claim  of  the  capitalist  to  dispose  at  pleasure  of  his 
property,  without  regard  to  the  common  good, 
and  denied  in  all  its  phases  the  theory  of  the  false 
modern  individualism,  while  offering  the  fullest 
liberty  to  all  true  individual  development  in  every 
sphere  of  endeavor.  So,  too,  the  monk  was  kept 
within  his  strict,  but  voluntary,  vow  of  poverty 
and  the  ecclesiastic  might  not  appropriate  at  his 
mere  will  the  proceeds  of  rich  benefices  without 
considering  the  poor.  To  all  alike  was  applied 
the  principle,  so  clearly  expressed  by  St.  Thomas 
in  the  famous  passage  quoted  by  Pope  Leo  XIII 
in  his  labor  encyclical:  "Man  should  not  con- 
sider his  outward  possessions  as  his  own,  but  as 
common  to  all,  so  as  to  share  with  them  without 
difficulty  when  others  are  in  need."  This  doc- 
trine has  found  its  practical  industrial  expression 
for  our  own  times  in  the  concluding  words  of  the 
pastoral  on  "  Social  Reconstruction "  by  the 
American  Bishops: 

The  laborer's  right  to  a  decent  livelihood  is  the  first  moral 
charge  upon  industry.  The  employer  has  a  right  to  get  a 
reasonable  living  out  of  his  business,  but  he  has  no  right  to  in- 
terest on  his  investment  until  his  employees  have  obtained  at 
least  living  wages.  This  is  the  human  and  Christian,  in  con- 
trast to  the  purely  commercial  and  pagan,   ethics  of  industry. 

So  the  unbroken  tradition  is  handed  down  and 
the  inviolate  teaching  of  the   Church   still   con- 


3IO  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

tinues  from  the  Middle  Ages,  as  it  began  with 
the  preaching  of  Christ  and  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount.  By  this  teaching  can  the  evils  of  today 
be  remedied  as  were  the  evils  of  yesterday.  By 
its  light  shall  we  learn  the  proper  limitation  of 
interest  on  capital,  and  the  fair  remuneration  of 
management  and  labor,  together  with  the  true 
spirit  of  cooperation,  copartnership  and  Christian 
brotherhood. 


CHAPTER     XXIX 

THE  TRIUMPH  OF  WORKINGMEN'S 
COOPERATIVES 

THE  basis  of  all  true  social  reconstruction 
is  the  gild  concept.  The  ideal  social  or- 
der will  be  that  which  most  perfectly 
applies  it.  The  medieval  gilds  continued  in  their 
usefulness  for  many  centuries.  There  is  no  rea- 
son why  a  new  gild  development,  as  perfectly 
adapted  to  our  own  times,  should  not  continue  in 
existence  for  as  many  centuries  to  come,  stabiliz- 
ing our  economic  conditions,  ending  class-conflict 
and  securing  social  peace  and  welfare.  Minor  ad- 
justments can  readily  be  made  with  changing  cir- 
cumstances, as  the  old  gildsmen  constantly  adapted 
their  sane  and  approved  principles,  based  on  the 
Gospel  and  the  natural  law,  to  the  newly  arising 
needs  of  the  day. 

Lest  it  be  imagined  that  we  are  here  dealing 
with  empty  illusions,  it  may  be  well  to  begin  by 
showing  how  the  gild  idea  is  already  practically 
and  successfully  applied  in  what  may  be  called  the 
merchant  gilds  of  our  day.  Like  the  medieval 
English  gilds  of  that  name  they  are  not  the  out- 
growth of  high  finance,  but  the  achievements  of 
simple  workingmen.  The  economic  gild  idea,  as 
conceived  in  its  perfection,  is  a  movement  of  the 

3" 


312  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

workingmen,  by  the  workingmen,  for  their  own 
and  the  common  good,  understanding  by  "  work- 
ingmen "  all  those  who  labor  either  with  hand  or 
brain,  provided  their  purpose  is  not  the  amassing 
of  their  own  individual  profits.  They  must  seek 
the  common  good  no  less  than  their  own  ad- 
vantage. 

It  was  in  1844  that  twenty-eight  poor  weavers 
organized  in  England  a  cooperative  store,  dealing 
in  four  commodities  only,  the  Rochdale  Equitable 
Pioneers  Society.  The  movement  prospered  with 
never  a  failure  or  a  single  lean  year.  Within 
three  quarters  of  a  century  it  embraced  one-third 
of  the  total  population  of  Great  Britain  and  an- 
nually distributed  to  its  members  commodities 
amounting  in  worth  to  $1,000,000,000.  Its 
profits  were  then  $100,000,000  a  year,  of  which 
$65,000,000  were  returned  in  dividends  to  the 
members,  the  remaining  portion  being  used  for  in- 
terest on  capital  or  for  education,  propaganda  and 
welfare  purposes.  Dividends  represented  the 
worker's  savings  on  his  purchases  which  had  been 
made  at  market  prices. 

The  full  meaning  of  its  "  dividends  "  to  the 
workingman  will  be  made  clear  when  it  is  stated 
in  concrete  terms  that  they  ordinarily  amounted 
to  a  sum  large  enough  to  pay  the  entire  rent  bill 
for  the  enrolled  laborer  and  his  family.  Mem- 
bership, therefore,  in  a  cooperative  trading  society 
was  equivalent  for  him,  to  the  free  gift  of  a  home. 


workingmen's  cooperatives         313 

Surely  no  small  consideration.  The  figures  here 
quoted  are  offered  on  the  authority  of  Mr.  James 
P.  Warbasse,  President  of  the  Cooperative  League 
for  America  in  19 19,  who  thus  describes  the  state 
of  the  Cooperative  British  Wholesale  Society  at 
the  close  of  the  war: 

The  British  Wholesale  Society  supplies  1,200  societies.  It 
owns  its  own  steamships.  It  has  fourteen  great  warehouses. 
It  gives  lavishly  of  its  great  resources  towards  welfare  work. 
It  is  the  largest  purchaser  of  Canadian  wheat  in  the  world. 
Its  eight  flour  mills  are  the  largest  in  Great  Britain.  These 
mills  produce  thirty-five  tons  of  flour  every  hour  for  the  people 
who  own  the  mills.  The  cooperators  of  Glasgow  own  the 
largest  bakery  in  the  world.  The  British  Cooperative  Whole- 
sale Society  owns  sixty-five  factories.  Their  soap  works  make 
500  tons  of  soap  a  week.  They  produce  5,000,000  pairs  of 
boots  annually.  They  conduct  three  great  printing  plants. 
Their  24,000  acres  of  farms  in  England  produce  vast  quantities 
of  dairy  products,  fruit  and  vegetables.  They  have  recently 
purchased  100,000  acres  of  the  best  wheat  lands  in  Canada. 
They  own  their  own  coal  mines.  They  own  3,200  acres  of  tea 
plantations  in  Ceylon  and  vineyards  in  Spain.  In  Africa  they 
control  vast  tracts  of  land  for  the  production  of  olives,  from 
which  oil  for  their  soap  factories  is  produced.^ 

Rather  a  fair  development  from  the  modest  be- 
ginnings made  by  the  twenty-eight  weavers  with 
apparently  no  prospects  in  life  but  the  poorhouse ! 
It  illustrates  what  can  be  accomplished  by  an  or- 
ganization owned  and  controlled  by  workingmen. 

1  The  Carpenter.  It  must  be  understood  that  the  productive 
enterprises  themselves,  enumerated  above,  were  not  ordinarily 
conducted  cooperatively.  Thus  the  various  factories  were  still 
usually  operated  on  the  wage-system. 


314  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

In  a  similar  manner  Danish  farmers  have  shown 
their  power  of  self  control  by  binding  themselves 
to  buy  or  sell  to  their  own  cooperatives  only  for 
a  definite  number  of  years  in  order  to  overcome 
the  competition  of  capitalist  rivals  who  for  the 
first  year  might  offer  their  goods  at  a  lower  rate 
than  the  cooperative  in  order  to  withdraw  the  men 
from  their  own  undertakings,  and  later  raise  the 
prices  at  their  own  pleasure.  In  the  meantime 
the  farmers  could  fairly  judge  whether  their  co- 
operative was  sound  and  safe.^  Hence  the  great 
success  of  the  Danish  cooperative  movement.  Co- 
operative trading  has  proved  successful  in  small 
countries  and  large,  in  Finland  and  Russia. 

The  question  of  cooperation  has  been  suffi- 
ciently dealt  with  by  the  present  writer  in  previous 
studies  gathered  together  in  "  The  World  Prob- 
lem." It  is  further  developed  here  to  show  the 
possibility  of  applying  the  gild  idea  on  a  scale  com- 
mensurate with  our  modern  civilization.  From 
the  above  illustration  we  can  perhaps  surmise  what 
may  yet  be  accomplished  in  the  more  difficult  field 
of  cooperative  production  as  well  as  in  the  highly 
successful  trading  and  banking  enterprises  of  the 
workingmen.  The  latter  are  an  education  for 
labor.  This  the  Catholic  Bishops  of  the  United 
States  pointed  out  in  their  "  Social  Reconstruc- 
tion," January,  19 19,  as  also  the  American  Fed- 
eration of  Labor  in  its  own  "  Reconstruction  Pro- 

2  Central-Blatt  and  Social  Justice,  Nov.,  1918,  p.  239. 


workingmen's  cooperatives        315 

gram."  The  following  passages  express  the  Fed- 
eration's hearty  endorsement  of  consumers'  co- 
operative societies : 

There  is  an  almost  limitless  field  for  the  consumers  in  which 
to  establish  cooperative  buying  and  selling,  and  in  this  neces- 
sary development  the  trade  unionists  should  take  an  immediate 
and  active  part.  .  .  .  Participation  in  these  cooperative  agencies 
must  of  necessity  prepare  the  mass  of  the  people  to  participate 
more  eflPectively  in  the  solution  of  the  industrial,  commercial, 
social  and  political  problems  which  continually  arise. 

With  the  American  National  Cooperative  Con- 
vention, held  at  Springfield,  111.,  September,  191 8, 
the  United  States  may  be  said  to  have  definitely 
entered  upon  the  new  era  of  cooperation,  as  the 
last  of  the  great  world  Powers  to  realize  the  im- 
portance of  this  movement.  Best  of  all,  it  was 
a  workingmen's  convention,  in  which  the  speeches 
and  discussions  were  by  workingmen  mainly.  Its 
purpose  was  "  the  formation  of  a  national  coop- 
erative wholesale  house  as  a  medium  of  supply  to 
upward  of  1,000  retail  cooperatives  in  the  United 
States."  By  this  wider  cooperation  the  various 
stores  hoped  more  effectively  to  overcome  the  com- 
petition of  wholesalers  and  jobbers.  The  com- 
prehensive plans  of  the  American  workingmen 
were  thus  outlined  at  the  time  in  the  Catholic 
Charities  Review: 

This  will  supply  the  special  abilities  of  the  best  men  of  each 
group  —  men  qualified  for  organizing  being  placed  in  one 
group,  financial  men  in  another,  expert  accountants  in  another, 
and  shrewd  buyers  in  others  —  who  will  give  the  seven  groups 


3l6  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

concerned  the  immediate  benefit  of  their  collective  experience. 
The  organization  will  finally  resemble  that  of  labor  unions, 
which  are  formed  into  State  federations,  with  national  and  in- 
ternational bodies  above  them.  Oiuned  from  below  and  man- 
aged democratically  from  beloiv,  the  warehouses  supervised  by 
the  national  organization  will  ultimately  be  erected  in  every 
important  center  of  the  country.^ 

In  these  now  historic  events  we  behold  a  true 
gild  idea  applied  and  carried  out,  as  it  should  be, 
on  a  broad  democratic  basis.  Shares  were  usually 
placed  at  the  reasonable  valuation  of  from  $5  to 
$25,  within  the  easy  reach  of  every  workingman. 
The  more  a  family  buys  the  more  is  the  money 
returned  to  it  in  "  dividends,"  but  really  as  sav- 
ings. It  is  a  movement  away  from  Socialism  and 
back  to  the  gilds  with  their  sound  tenet  of  wide 
private  ownership  and  management  by  the  work- 
ers in  place  of  ownership  and  management  by  a 
communistic  state.     It  is  our  first  gild  lesson. 

The  very  beginnings  of  this  movement  remind  us 
of  the  origin  of  the  medieval  craft  gilds  which  in 
their  early  struggle  effectively  ended  the  capitalistic 
system  of  their  day.  It  was  the  cradle  exploit  of 
a  youthful  Hercules  whose  labors  were  to  be  de- 
voted to  the  good  of  mankind.  "  The  coopera- 
tive movement,  as  we  know  it  to-day,"  wrote  Lewis 
S.  Gannett  in  the  Survey,  "  began  with  more  or  less 
spontaneity  among  small  groups  of  weavers,  me- 
chanics, peasants,  here  and  there,  in  Ireland,  Rus- 
sia, Denmark,  France,  England  and  Germany  — 

'  March,  1919,  p.  82. 


workingmen's  cooperatives         317 

almost  everywhere  except  In  America."  *  When 
it  finally  arose  in  America,  it  began  in  exactly  the 
same  manner.  The  Church  at  once  welcomed  this 
movement  and  took  it  into  her  arms.  Her  priests, 
like  their  predecessors  a  thousand  years  before, 
not  merely  encouraged  it  but  gave  to  it  their  hearty 
support.  Everywhere  cooperative  credit  banks,  in 
particular,  were  started  for  the  rural  populations 
by  the  parish  priests.  Even  in  distant  India  we 
find  them  successfully  controlling  or  inspiring  the 
cooperative  trading  and  credit  movement  among 
the  natives.  A  large  and  interesting  volume  could 
be  written  showing  the  active  interest  taken  by 
the  Catholic  Church  in  the  system  of  cooperation. 
It  is  not  a  revolutionary  movement,  in  the  So- 
cialist and  Bolshevist  sense,  but  a  gradual  and 
far  more  lasting  transformation  of  society  and  of 
the  entire  economic  order,  without  violence  or  in- 
justice, provided  the  common  good  and  the  Gos- 
pel teachings  are  not  lost  to  sight.  "  While  the 
Socialists  have  been  talking  State  ownership,  and 
then,  once  having  control  of  the  states,  have  be- 
come afraid  of  the  thing  they  preached,"  says  the 
writer  just  quoted,  "  the  cooperatives  have,  rela- 
tively unnoticed,  been  building  up  a  form  of  in- 
dustry which,  more  peacefully  but  no  less  cer- 
tainly, challenges  the  pre-war  irresponsible  capi- 
talist system  of  production."  ^     To  this  system  we 

*  "  The  Cooperative  International,"  April  5,  1919. 
=  Ibid. 


3l8  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

all  are  opposed  and  the  Socialist  vote  has  to  a 
great  extent  implied  no  more  than  a  protest  against 
it.  So  far  all  can  heartily  agree.  But  men  have 
failed  to  see  the  equally  pernicious  principles  of 
the  Socialist  movement  and  the  dangerous  power 
given  by  it  into  the  hands  of  men  who  are  opposed 
alike  to  religion  and  to  Christian  morality,  while 
their  communistic  dreams  can  only  prove  eco- 
nomically ruinous  in  the  end.  What  men  really 
desire  is  the  solution  offered  by  a  Christian  sys- 
tem of  cooperation.  Unfortunately  cooperatives 
are  constantly  confused  with  Socialists  by  careless 
journalists,  and  even  Bishop  Ketteler  and  Pope 
Leo  XIII,  as  well  as  the  first  Christians  in  the 
Apostolic  Church,  have  been  called  Socialists. 
The  word  itself  is  perfectly  innocent,  and  we  might 
willingly  claim  it  for  ourselves,  if  its  root-meaning 
were  alone  to  be  considered.  But  words  often 
lose  their  primitive  significance  and  gather  about 
them  a  variety  of  associations  in  which  they  are 
clothed.  Hence  the  wise  insistence  of  Pope  Pius 
X  that  the  Christian  popular  movement  be  known 
as  Christian  Democracy  and  not  as  Social  Democ- 
racy. There  is  an  essential  difference  between 
the  two.  The  former  acknowledges  all  just  rights 
of  property,  and  seeks  to  bring  about,  not  the 
abolition  of  private  ownership  in  the  means  of 
production,  but  its  widest  distribution.  The  case 
has  been  clearly  stated  by  a  writer  in  the  Irish 
Theological  Quarterly.     He  asks : 


workingmen's  cooperatives         319 

Ought  we  try  to  remedy  our  present  system  by  gradually 
working  back  to  the  Middle-Age  conception  of  industry,  in  which 
practically  every  worker  would  be  capitalist  and  laborer  at  the 
same  time?  Or  ought  private  ownership  to  be  abolished  entirely, 
and  an  experiment  be  made  with  collective  ownership?  .  .  .  The 
former  alternative  is  favored  not  only  by  Catholics,  who  have 
definite  ethical  considerations  to  guide  them,  but  also  by  a  large 
body  of  non-Catholic  social  reformers.  No  one  wants  to  re- 
vert to  the  industrial  conditions  of  the  Middle  Ages.  That 
would  be  obviously  an  absurd  policy  in  view  of  the  develop- 
ments of  science  and  machinery.  What  is  aimed  at  is  to  bring 
our  present  industrial  system  into  line  with  the  more  humane 
conception  of  industry,  which  obtained  in  those  days.  With  this 
end  in  view  social  reformers  have  from  time  to  time  put  forward 
various  more  or  less  tentative  schemes,  such  as  cooperation,  co- 
partnership and  profit-sharing. 

Cooperation  would  bind  together  in  groups  the  small  capi- 
talists, that  is  the  men  who  are  at  once  the  owners  and  workers 
of  their  business,  and  would  thereby  give  them  the  economic 
advantages  enjoyed  by  the  large  unit  of  capital.  The  system 
has  been  adopted  with  great  success  in  the  case  of  agriculture, 
and  the  consumers'  cooperative  stores.  Copartnenhip  is  meant 
to  apply  chiefly  to  great  industrial  concerns,  in  which  the  de- 
velopment of  machinery  and  the  specialization  of  functions  have 
rendered  it  necessary  for  great  numbers  of  workers  to  cooperate 
in  the  manufacture  of  specific  articles.  The  idea  is  to  give  all 
such  workers  a  share  in  the  capital  and  profits  of  the  concern, 
so  that  the  worker  will  no  longer  be  a  mere  wage-earner,  but  will 
have  a  personal  interest  in  the  success  of  the  business. 

The  second  alternative,  that  of  collective  ownership,  is  pro- 
posed by  Socialism  and  a  number  of  other  more  or  less  extreme 
policies  which  have  developed  from  Socialism.  .  .  .  The  ideal 
of  every  collectivist  policy  is  a  social  organization,  in  which  there 
will  be  but  one  owner,  the  Community,  and  in  which  every  cit- 
izen will  be  merely  a  wage-earner.  The  ideal  of  the  Catholic 
social  reformer  on  the  other  hand  is  an  equitable  distribution 
of  wealth  in  a  community  in  which  every  laborer  will  be  owner, 
or  at  least  part-owner  of  the  business  in  which  he  works.* 

•  W.  Moran,  April,  1919. 


320  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

The  aim,  then,  of  an  ideal  Christian  gild  system, 
applied  to  our  modern  economic  developments,  is 
to  enable  every  man,  so  far  as  possible,  to  be  an 
owner  of  productive  property,  not  by  a  meaning- 
less collectivism  under  a  Socialist  bureaucracy,  but 
by  a  strictly  private  ownership,  such  as  every  in- 
dividual gildsman  enjoyed  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
and  every  apprentice  and  journeymen  could  rea- 
sonably hope  to  acquire  in  his  own  good  time.  In 
this  way  alone  can  society  be  stabilized  and  ren- 
dered immune  from  revolution  and  social  unrest. 
Vastly  significant  is  the  fact  that  the  only  organ- 
izations that  were  able  successfully  to  withstand 
all  the  forces  of  Bolshevism,  were  the  Russian  co- 
operative societies.  They  had  been  big  enough  to 
provision  the  great  armies  after  the  corrupt  Czar- 
ist  Government  had  ceased  to  function,  says  the 
New  York  Evening  Post,  and  they  were  not  to  be 
shaken  by  even  a  Bolshevist  revolution.  So  too 
the  JVeekly  Freeman  reports  the  remarks  of  the 
Rev.  T.  A.  Finlay,  S.  J.,  at  the  annual  meeting  of 
the  cooperative  Irish  Agricultural  Organization 
Society: 

It  was  a  remarkable  thing  that  even  in  Russia,  where  revolu- 
tion seemed  to  have  broken  into  the  wildest  orgies,  the  Coop- 
erative Society  had  held  its  own  and  seemed  to  be  increasing 
daily  in  favor.  Cooperative  societies  have  been  favored  by 
all  the  Governments  that  had  succeeded  one  another  in  that 
disturbed  country. 

The  gild  idea  reached  its  most  perfect  modern 


WORKINGMEN  S    COOPERATIVES  32  I 

expression,  so  far  attained,  in  the  cooperative  pro- 
ductive societies.  It  shall  be  the  purpose  of  an- 
other chapter  to  outline  the  future  of  society  were 
this  ideal  still  more  fully  and  more  adequately  real- 
ized. 

Attention  may  here  be  called  to  the  wide  system 
of  socialization,  combined  with  private  productive 
ownership,  carried  out  by  the  farmers  of  North 
Dakota.  Thus  Bill  No.  20  declared  the  purpose 
of  the  State  of  North  Dakota  to  engage  in  the 
business  of  manufacturing  and  marketing  farm 
products  and  to  establish  a  warehouse,  elevator 
and  flour-mill  system.  To  make  State  institutions 
independent  of  private  capital,  the  State  engaged 
in  the  banking  business,  without  however  closing 
the  private  banks.  There  was  also  a  State  hail- 
insurance  department  and  a  State  home-building 
association  established.  All  these  laws  were 
passed  in  January  and  February,  19 19. 

The  principle  itself  of  private  productive  owner- 
ship was  not  attacked,  but  the  purpose  rather  was 
to  safeguard  it  for  the  farmers  by  socializing  cer- 
tain institutions  where  cooperation  had  been  em- 
ployed in  other  countries.  It  all  helps  to  make 
plain  the  trend  of  the  times:  collectivism  or  co- 
operation. We  do  not  object  to  a  limited  State 
ownership,  provided  it  does  not  exceed  the  de- 
mands of  the  public  good;  but  we  oppose  the  prin- 
ciples of  Socialist  collectivism  and  favor  coopera- 
tion. 


CHAPTER     XXX 

MODERN  INDUSTRIAL  DEMOCRACY 

A  FEW  years  before  the  World  War  a 
strike  was  declared  in  one  of  the  Italian 
glass-blowing  industries.  Unfortunately 
for  the  men,  the  employers'  association  had  been 
most  thoroughly  organized,  and  the  workers  soon 
found  themselves  engaged  in  a  losing  fight.  The 
funds  from  which  to  pay  the  strikers  were  rap- 
idly running  low  and  defeat  was  staring  them  in 
the  face.  At  this  moment,  as  Mr.  Andrew  E. 
Malone  describes  the  event  in  the  Irish  Monthly,^ 
a  flanking  movement  was  decided  upon.  Sufficient 
capital  was  collected  by  the  workers  and  a  coop- 
erative society  was  formed  that  now  gave  em- 
ployment to  the  men  in  their  own  plant.  The  ex- 
periment proved  too  successful  to  be  discontinued 
with  the  termination  of  the  strike.  A  period  of 
sharp  competition  between  the  workmen's  coop- 
erative and  the  employers'  plants  naturally  fol- 
lowed. It  was  a  severe  test  for  the  workers'  en- 
durance and  the  financial  soundness  of  their  ven- 
ture. But  every  difficulty  was  overcome,  and  by 
the  end  of  the  war,  one-half  of  the  entire  output 
of  bottles  in  Italy  was  produced  in  the  four  large 

^  June,   1919. 

322 


MODERN   INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACY         323 

factories  of  the  Federated  Cooperative  Glass- 
works, owned  and  managed  by  the  workers. 

The  success  of  the  Bottleblowers'  Union  was  a 
lesson  not  lost  upon  the  workers  in  other  indus- 
tries, and  soon  almost  every  department  of  pro- 
duction could  number  its  enterprises  coopera- 
tively conducted  by  the  men  engaged  in  them. 
The  movement  had  proved  the  ability  of  the  work- 
ers to  manage  their  own  industries  in  open  com- 
petition with  capitalistic  factories  and  workshops. 

In  the  United  States  workmen's  cooperative 
productive  societies  had  sprung  up  periodically 
during  almost  the  entire  history  of  the  labor  move- 
ment. They  were  usually  founded  under  condi- 
tions precisely  similar  to  those  under  which  the 
Italian  union  began  its  venture.  A  series  of  labor 
defeats  was  likely  to  be  followed  by  a  mushroom 
growth  of  cooperative  productive  societies,  which 
either  failed,  or  became  capitalistic  with  success, 
or  else  disappeared  so  noiselessly  that  no  further 
record  can  be  found  of  them  in  contemporary  doc- 
uments. Yet  these  desultory  pre-war  efforts  were 
no  test  of  what  could  be  accomplished  under  more 
favorable  circumstances.  Cooperative  production 
in  industry  was  more  successful  in  France  and  Eng- 
land during  this  same  period,  but  the  movement 
rather  declined  than  increased  in  these  countries 
before  the  war.  The  immense  productive  enter- 
prises of  the  great  cooperative  trading  society  of 
Great  Britain  were  not  necessarily  cooperative, 


324  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

but  were  ordinarily  conducted  on  a  mere  wage-sys- 
tem, with  the  cooperative  society  as  the  employer. 

A  remarkable  step  was  taken  when  in  19 19 
the  trade  union  movement  in  Britain,  with  its 
5,000,000  members,  decided  to  join  forces  with 
the  Union  of  British  Cooperative  Societies,  num- 
bering about  4,000,000  members,  with  the  pur- 
pose of  dominating  production,  consumption  and 
distribution  in  Great  Britain.  Yet  this  too  was 
not  a  society  for  cooperative  production,  but  to 
control  prices  and  guarantee  a  market  for  the  co- 
operative organizations.  The  unions  were  to  sup- 
ply capital  for  increased  production  on  the  part 
of  the  cooperative  societies,  while  all  their  bank- 
ing business  was  to  be  undertaken  by  the  Coop- 
erative Wholesale  Bank. 

With  the  close  of  the  World  War  the  idea  of 
cooperative  production  in  industry  had  taken  a 
new  hold  upon  the  mind  and  imagination  of  the 
workers  of  the  entire  world.  Unfortunately  the 
true  historic  lesson  of  the  gild  idea  had  not  been 
brought  home  and  communism  and  Socialism  were 
widely  confused  with  it.  Hence  the  many  aber- 
rations of  the  new  movement. 

Long  before  this  period  Bishop  Ketteler,  in  his 
plans  for  cooperative  factories  to  be  owned  and 
managed  by  the  workers,  had  made  a  modern 
Christian  application  of  the  medieval  gilds  to  the 
large-scale  machine  production  of  our  day.  Nat- 
urally his  ideals  were  never  realized.     The  work- 


MODERN   INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACY         325 

ers  of  Germany  were  still  financially  and  in  many 
other  ways  too  helpless  to  undertake  this  enter- 
prise on  their  own  responsibility,  and  Bishop  Ket- 
teler  looked  for  the  altruistic  support  of  some 
of  the  great  employers,  who,  he  hoped,  might  be 
induced  to  give  part  of  their  accumulated  fortunes 
to  enable  the  workers  to  begin  their  cooperative 
ventures.  The  good  Bishop  was  not  the  only 
one,  as  we  know,  vainly  to  entertain  such  hopes. 

Passing  next  over  the  many  unsuccessful  ef- 
forts of  the  Utopian  Socialists,  we  find  a  new  im- 
petus given  to  the  gild  idea  in  industry  by  M. 
Georges  Sorel,  the  founder  of  the  modern  athe- 
istic syndicalism,  which  began  in  the  French  non- 
Catholic  syndicats,  became  the  doctrine  of  the  di- 
rect-actionists  in  England,  and  was  copied  by  the 
I.  W.  W.,  or  Industrial  Workers  of  the  World, 
in  America.  Direct  action  {i.e.,  action  without 
reliance  upon  political  means),  violence,  sabotage, 
and  the  general  strike  "  with  folded  arms,"  soon 
became  inseparably  connected  with  the  word 
"  Syndicalism," 

This,  however,  was  merely  its  destructive  as- 
pect. Constructively,  syndicalism  proposed  to  ac- 
quire for  the  workers  the  factories  in  which  they 
were  engaged,  without  any  compensation  to  the 
owners.  Since  the  idea  of  authority,  both  human 
and  Divine,  was  scornfully  rejected  by  its  follow- 
ers, any  means  that  could  bring  about  this  con- 
summation were  held  to  be  justifiable.     While, 


326  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

therefore,  the  medieval  gild  idea  was  in  a  measure 
caught  by  them  in  the  ownership  and  manage- 
ment of  industries  by  the  workers,  the  means  by 
which  this  was  to  be  brought  about  and  the  meth- 
ods by  which  it  was  to  be  carried  out  were  dis- 
tinctly false,  morally  unjustifiable  and  economi- 
cally ruinous. 

What  has  been  said  of  syndicalism  can  be  re- 
peated, in  its  own  way,  of  the  Soviets,  as  intro- 
duced by  the  Bolshevist  Socialists  of  Russia. 
They  shared  in  the  worst  vices  of  the  proposed 
atheistical  syndicats.  They  were  equally  regard- 
less of  the  rights  of  property  and  the  claims  of 
authority,  human  and  Divine.  And  yet  they  con- 
tained the  germs  of  the  gild  idea,  but  without  be- 
lief in  God  and  obedience  to  His  Ten  Command- 
ments and  to  the  voice  of  His  Church.  Here  pre- 
cisely is  the  essential  difference,  the  difference  that 
implies  failure  on  the  one  side  and  success  on  the 
other.  The  just  rights  of  property  were  never  dis- 
regarded by  the  gilds,  as  supported  by  the  Church, 
nor  were  the  interests  of  the  various  classes  neg- 
lected. A  classless  society  was  never  a  gild  ideal, 
but  rather  a  society  in  which  the  laborer  could 
achieve  economic  independence,  could  hope  by  in- 
dustry and  virtue  to  own  his  means  of  produc- 
tion and  might  joyfully  perform  his  daily  task 
without  envy  of  other  classes,  who  were  made  to 
respect  his  just  rights  as  he  religiously  respected 
theirs.     To  paraphrase  a  line  long  consecrated  to 


MODERN    INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACY         327 

the  efforts  of  schoolboy  oratory:  "  To  be  a  gilds- 
man  was  to  be  a  king,"  But  of  this  position  the 
laborer  was  first  to  render  himself  worthy  by  train- 
ing, experience  and  the  record  of  a  true  religious 
life.  Here  is  the  great  weakness  of  modern  in- 
dustrial democracy.  It  is  a  sad  mistake  to  im- 
agine that  it  can  succeed  without  God  or  that  men 
can  be  fit  for  responsibility  without  previous  train- 
ing and  trial.  Such  were  many  of  the  immature 
attempts  that  led  to  failure. 

Gild  Socialism  is  another,  and  more  direct  mod- 
ern application  of  the  medieval  gild  conception. 
The  mistake  made  here  consists  in  yoking  to- 
gether two  irreconcilable  ideas  that  mutually  con- 
tradict each  other.  The  essence  of  the  gild  con- 
cept is  private  ownership  attainable  by  the  work- 
ers who  prove  their  fitness.  The  essence  of  So- 
cialism is,  on  the  contrary,  the  denial  of  private 
ownership  by  the  workers.  A  common  form  of 
Gild  Socialism  is  that  which  would  vest  the  own- 
ership of  the  various  industries  in  the  State  and 
give  their  management  into  the  hands  of  the  re- 
spective workers.  Yet  this  idea,  combining  State 
ownership  with  labor  control,  if  justly  applied  and 
limited  to  certain  industries,  is  not  of  itself  more 
objectionable  than  other  forms  of  public  owner- 
ship that  are  licit  if  the  public  interest  demands 
them.     The  danger  of  abuse  is  obvious. 

The  originality  of  the  Plumb  plan,  designed  by 
Glen  E.   Plumb  for  the  railroad  brotherhoods, 


328  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

was  to  be  found  in  Its  directorate,  which  distin- 
guished it  from  all  other  forms  of  Gild  Socialism. 
While  the  latter  commonly  vests  the  ownership 
with  the  public  and  leaves  the  control  and  man- 
agement to  the  workers,  the  new  device  admitted 
the  public  as  one  of  three  controlling  factors. 
The  board  of  directors  was  to  consist  of  fifteen 
persons,  five  of  whom  were  to  be  appointed  by  the 
President  to  represent  the  people,  five  to  be  elected 
by  the  operating  officials  and  five  to  be  chosen  by 
the  other  employees.  Rates  were  to  be  fix^d,  as 
before,  by  the  Interstate  Commerce  Commission, 
but  the  determining  of  wages  were  ultimately  to 
rest  with  the  operating  officials  and  employees,  in 
as  far  as  they  constituted  two-thirds  of  the  direc- 
torate. 

The  surplus  left  after  the  payment  of  all  ex- 
penses and  charges  was  to  be  divided  equally  be- 
tween the  Government  and  the  employees.  But 
should  the  share  accruing  to  the  former  ever  ex- 
ceed five  per  cent  on  the  gross  operating  revenue, 
the  entire  government  dividend  was  to  be  ab- 
sorbed in  a  reduction  of  rates.  Thus  it  was 
hoped  gradually  to  reduce  both  traveling  and 
freight  charges  for  the  public. 

To  prevent  the  employees  from  voting  them- 
selves higher  wages  whenever  the  government 
dividends  would  exceed  five  per  cent,  so  that  the 
•wages  might  continually  increase  and  the  rates 
never  fall,  it  was  determined  to  give  the  operat- 


MODERN   INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACY         329 

ing  officials  twice  the  dividend  paid  to  the  other 
employees.  An  increase  in  dividends,  it  was  held, 
would  thus  be  preferable  for  them  to  an  increase 
of  salary.  It  is  obvious  how  delicately  adjusted 
the  new  mechanism  was  and  how  readily  it  might 
be  thrown  into  disorder.  The  remaining  sections 
of  the  plan  dealt  with  the  building  of  extensions 
and  the  establishment  of  a  sinking  fund,  the  money 
of  which  was  eventually  to  be  used  to  retire  bonds 
now  privately  held,  so  that  the  roads  might  become 
the  property  of  the  people. 

The  ethical  aspects  of  this  plan  are  as  compli- 
cated as  its  mechanism.  If  the  property  is  owned 
by  the  people,  we  naturally  ask,  why  should  half 
the  dividends  be  given  to  the  workers  who  da 
not  own  it?  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not 
improper  that  labor  be  permitted  a  share  in  divi- 
dends to  encourage  production.  But  if  the  peo- 
ple are  the  employers  of  the  railroad  brother- 
hoods, why  should  the  employees  alone,  in  prac- 
tice, determine  the  wages  in  which  the  people  are 
equally  interested?  Why  should  not  both  have 
at  least  an  equal  vote?  The  common  good 
should  here  be  a  main  consideration.  This  again 
is  a  principle  of  true  democracy.  The  workers 
themselves  must  always  be  the  first  to  demand 
that  the  rights  of  the  people  are  scrupulously  re- 
spected. The  application  of  such  plans  to  all  in- 
dustry would  destroy  private  ownership. 

The  true  gild  idea  demands  the  persistence  of 


330  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

private  productive  property,  but  would  have  both 
its  ownership  and  management  vested,  so  far  as 
may  be  justly  and  reasonably  possible,  in  the 
workers  themselves.  This  idea  is  to  be  carried 
out  neither  by  violence,  sabotage  and  general 
strikes,  nor  yet  by  confiscation,  whether  direct  or 
in  the  form  of  taxation.  It  can  be  realized,  in 
the  first  place,  by  the  competitive  efforts  of  the 
workers  themselves,  as  has  been  shown  in  the 
case  of  the  Italian  Bottleblowers'  Union,  and 
might  be  illustrated  by  countless  similar  instances. 
Writing  in  the  American  Journal  of  Sociology, 
Victor  S.  Yarros  says : 

It  is  our  duty  and  our  privilege  to  promote  industrial  democ- 
racy in  all  proper,  expedient  ways.  Trade  unions  should  turn 
their  thoughts  to  the  question  of  cooperative  production  and 
cooperative  distribution.  They  are  demanding  justice,  but  they 
are  not  doing  all  they  can  to  advance  and  establish  industrial 
justice.  They  think  too  much  of  immediate  questions  and  not 
enough  about  the  future  of  industry  and  labor.  W^hy  should 
not  American  trade  unions,  or  industrial  unions,  assume  en- 
trepreneur functions?  Why  should  they  not  compete  with  pri- 
vate contractors?  Why  should  they  not  start,  on  a  modest 
scale,  cooperative  factories?  One  such  factory,  if  successful, 
would  be  worth  a  thousand  strikes  from  the  point  of  view  of 
ultimate  economic  justice  and  order.  In  primitive  Russia  there 
are  thousands  of  Artlels,  cooperative  orgaAizations  of  peasants 
and  laborers.  If  American  labor  wants  democratic  industry, 
it  should  proceed  to  give  society  object  lessons  in  democratic  or 
cooperative  industry.  We  may  be  sure  that  before  long  it  will 
do  this  instead  of  contenting  itself  with  negative  methods.  In 
the  Old  World  cooperation  has  grown  steadily  and  has  been 
successful  in  many  ways.^ 

'"The  Coming  Industrial  Democracy,"  May,  1919. 


MODERN   INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACY         33 1 

But  it  is  not  necessary  that  cooperative  enter- 
prises should  be  undertaken  by  the  workers  ex- 
clusively. Hence  the  value  of  copartnership,  de- 
fined as :  "A  system  of  industry  under  which 
the  great  mass  of  workers  will  not  only  have  a 
direct  interest  in  the  profit  of  their  work,  but  be 
part  owners  of  the  capital  with  which  it  is  carried 
on."  ^  Copartnership  of  necessity  includes  profit- 
sharing,  but  profit-sharing  by  itself  alone  is  not 
copartnership.  It  is  "  an  agreement,  freely  en- 
tered into,  by  which  the  employee  receives  a  share, 
^xed  in  advance,  of  the  profits."  *  Copartnership 
may  often  be  the  most  feasible  method  of  coop- 
eration where  larger  sums  of  capital  are  required 
than  the  workingmen  themselves  can  furnish  from 
their  own  resources.  It  therefore  invites  outside 
shareholders  to  provide  a  portion,  greater  or 
smaller,  of  the  capital  needed.  Labor  then  shares, 
according  to  its  own  contribution,  both  in  the 
profits  and  the  control  of  the  business.  This  plan 
was  evolved  by  workingmen  themselv^es  in  Eng- 
land and  was  put  into  successful  operation  on  the 
initiative  of  employers  as  well  as  of  labor. 

In  the  typical  English  labor  copartnership  so- 
ciety, as  described  by  Aneurin  Williams  in  19 13, 
each  shareholder  was  given  a  single  vote,  irrespec- 
tive of  his  or  her  amount  of  share  capital.     The 

3  Aneurin   Williams,   "  Co-partnership   and   Pofit-Sharing,"   p. 
10. 
*  Ibid.,  p.  13. 


332  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

latter  might  never  exceed  £200  for  any  one  in- 
dividual. The  committee  on  management  was 
democratically  elected  by  the  shareholders,  and 
every  class  of  the  membership  was  to  be  repre- 
sented, including  the  customers,  who  were  the  co- 
operative societies  and  as  such  held  shares.  The 
division  of  profits,  after  wages  and  expenses  have 
been  paid,  is  thus  explained: 

The  first  charge  upon  the  net  profit,  after  providing  for  de- 
preciation, reserve,  etc.,  is  usually  a  dividend  of  five  per  cent 
on  the  shares.  The  profit  remaining  after  that  is  divided  as  a 
dividend  to  the  workers  on  wages,  a  dividend  to  the  customers 
on  the  amount  of  their  purchases,  a  small  additional  dividend 
on  shares,  certain  payments  to  educational  and  provident  funds, 
and  so  on.  Thus  shares  may  in  a  prosperous  society  get  a 
total  return  of  six  or  even  seven  per  cent,  labor  a  dividend  of 
IS.  or  I  J.  6d.  (in  pre-war  values)  on  wages,  and  customers  a 
rebate  of  perhaps  id.  in  the  pound  on  their  purchases.  The 
figures,  of  course,  vary  greatly.  In  all  the  more  modern  soci- 
eties the  worker  cannot  withdraw  his  dividend  on  wages  in 
cash,  until  he  has  accumulated  a  certain  sum  in  the  shares  of 
the  society.     Up  to  that  sum  it  is  capitalized.^ 

Employers  themselves  have  often  taken  a  lead- 
ing part  in  the  development  of  copartnership  as 
well  as  of  profit-sharing  schemes.  Among  the 
first  notable  methods  for  the  partitioning  of  divi- 
dends between  capital  and  labor  in  the  United 
States,  was  the  so-called  Ryan-Callahan  plan  of 
*'  distributive  justice."  The  following  is  a  de- 
scription of  it  as  it  was  operative  in  19 17,  when  a 

» Ibid.,  p.  56. 


MODERN   INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACY         333 

bonus  equal  to  fifty-six  per  cent  on  their  wages  fell 
to  the  share  of  the  employees: 

First,  the  entire  profits  of  the  business  for  the  year  are  reck- 
oned, lump  sura.  Then,  they  are  cut  into  two  equal  parts.  One 
part  goes  to  capital,  the  other  to  labor.  The  share  to  capital  is 
distributed  in  proportion  to  the  capital  actually  invested,  paper 
stock  not  being  considered.  Capital  gets  no  other  share  in  the 
profits  of  the  business.  Thus  capital  and  labor  share  equally 
in  all  profits,  on  the  principle  that  they  are  equally  indis- 
pensable factors  of  production.  Labor's  share  is  distributed  in 
this  way:  As  the  Callahan  plant  is  a  manufacturing  concern, 
there  are  three  distinct  classes  of  workers  employed,  each  alike 
indispensable,  namely,  factory  employees,  salesmen,  and  office 
force.  Each  of  these  classes  gets  one-third  of  labor's  share  and 
each  member  of  a  class  receives  the  proportion  that  his  wage  or 
salary  bears  to  that  third.     This  completes  the  plan. 

As  an  educational  feature,  the  dividends  were 
placed  at  a  good  rate  of  interest  for  the  workers. 
The  capital  thus  formed  was  paid  out  to  them 
only  in  case  they  desired  it  for  the  building  of  a 
home  or  some  similar  worthy  purpose,  or  if  they 
left  their  employment.  This  course  was  followed 
in  as  far  as  the  dividends  given  out  the  first  year 
in  a  lump  sum  had  quickly  disappeared,  without 
improving  the  condition  of  the  workers. 

Even  where  capital  is  less  willing  to  make  con- 
cessions it  recognizes  the  falsity  of  the  assump>- 
tion  that  what  is  of  advantage  to  the  laborer  must 
be  of  advantage  to  the  employer.  The  reply 
given  by  Robert  Owen  to  the  factory  owner  who 
said  to  him,  "  If  my  men  liked,  they  could  save 
me  £10,000  a  year  by  better  work  and  the  avoid- 


334  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

ance  of  waste,"  has  become  classical:  "Then 
why  don't  you  pay  them  £5,000  a  year  to  do  it?  " 
As  John  Leitch  has  expressed  the  same  idea : 
"  Old-fashioned  owners  expect  people  to  work  for 
them.  Working  for  spells  competition;  working 
with  is  cooperation."  To  bring  men  to  work  with 
him  is  the  problem  to  be  solved  by  the  modern 
business  man. 

The  following  is  a  characteristic  type  of  the 
copartnership  plan  as  introduced  in  England  by 
many  of  the  employers  themselves  during  the  pre- 
war period. 

Every  regular  worker  has  a  share  of  profit  credited  to  him 
in  proportion  to  the  economy  of  production,  and  to  the  amount 
of  his  wages.  By  the  accumulation  and  investment  of  this 
profit  he  becomes  a  shareholder,  and,  at  the  shareholders'  meet- 
ings, he  has  a  vote  in  proportion  to  his  capital ;  and  he  helps 
to  elect  the  Directors.  Thus  copartnership  gives  the  share  in 
responsibility  and  control  which  normally  goes  with  sharehold- 
ing. I  do  not  mean  by  that  a  right  to  interfere  in  the  details 
of  the  management,  any  more  than  an  ordinary  stockholder  has 
a  right  to  do  so  in  a  joint  stock  company.  I  mean  a  voice  in 
settling  the  general  policy  of  the  business,  and  in  electing  the 
Directors  who  are  to  carry  out  that  policy. 

But  an  even  broader  vision  was  given  by  the 
Great  War,  and  employers  were  in  many  instances 
of  their  own  accord  prepared  to  welcome  the  par- 
ticipation of  labor  also  "  in  the  details  of  the  man- 
agement "  on  its  industrial  side.  So  the  world 
was  daily  progressing  towards  new  concepts  of  a 
new  order  of  democratic  industry.  A  first  step 
towards  this  was  the  shop-committee  system. 


MODERN   INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACY         335 

In  "  Man  to  Man  "  John  Leitch  outlines  a  plan 
modeled  by  him  after  the  Government  of  the 
United  States.  It  consists  of  a  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, elected  by  the  employees;  a  Senate 
constituted  of  foremen  and  department  managers; 
and  a  Cabinet,  or  executive  council,  with  the  pres- 
ident of  the  company  as  the  president  of  the  cab- 
inet. In  this  the  discussions  of  the  two  Houses 
are  taken  up  and  with  it  the  ultimate  approval  of 
all  measures  pertaining  to  the  conduct  of  the  fac- 
tory must  therefore  rest  after  having  passed  the 
House  and  Senate.  The  complaints  and  griev- 
ances of  the  men,  their  disputes  over  rates  or 
wages  are  to  be  presented  to  their  representatives 
in  the  House,  there  to  be  fairly  discussed  and  de- 
cided at  the  meeting.  These  representatives  are 
to  be  elected  by  departments,  one  for  each  twenty- 
five  employees.  Small  departments  combine  with 
each  other.  Such  at  least  was  the  first  practical 
application  made.  The  following  illustration  of 
this  plan,  as  it  was  operative  during  the  years 
19 1 8  and  1919  in  the  Demuth  Company,  the  larg- 
est manufacturers  of  pipes  and  smokers'  articles 
in  the  world,  will  be  of  interest: 

In  the  Demuth  plan  the  employee's  profit  from  the  plan  is 
dependent  upon  his  effective  interest  in  it  and  in  the  prosperity 
of  the  plant,  not  upon  his  "  bargaining  power."  His  dividends, 
which  are  distinct  from  his  wages,  increase  and  decrease  with 
the  quantity  and  quality  of  output,  individual  and  group  effi- 
ciency, and  market  conditions.     In  this  plant,  therefore,  the  em- 


336  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

ployee's  representatives  have  not  approached  the  question  of 
hours  dogmatically,  but  have  experimented  with  various  work- 
ing schedules  and  adjusted  them  to  output  and  market  condi- 
tions, with  a  view  to  the  greatest  profit  to  the  company  as  a 
whole.  In  a  similar  scientific  spirit  they  keep  a  close  eye  on 
labor  turnover,  have  made  a  plant  schedule  of  holidays  for  a 
great  variety  of  races,  and  have  set  up  their  own  Americaniza- 
tion classes.  The  plan  was  not  introduced  because  of  labor 
troubles,  and  there  have  never  been  any  at  this  plant.^ 


Yet  in  spite  of  this  roseate  picture  a  combined 
strike  and  lock-out  resulted  a  few  months  after 
these  lines  were  written.  For  two  reasons  the 
American  Federation  of  Labor  objected  to  all 
such  plans  of  "  Industrial  Democracy,"  however 
benevolently  intended  and  conducted.  The  first 
was  that  they  still  leave  the  final  decision  with  the 
employer;  and  the  second,  that  they  overlook  the 
labor  unions  and  substitute  an  employer's  organi- 
zation in  their  stead.  These  are  sound  objec- 
tions. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  labor  must 
ultimately  find  its  safety  in  its  own  organization, 
since  it  cannot  make  itself  dependent  upon  the 
mere  benevolence  of  employers. 

The  main  problem  for  labor  unions  is  to  keep 
just  and  reasonable  in  their  demands.  It  will 
thus  be  possible,  through  them,  to  cooperate 
towards  industrial  democracy  along  the  lines  of 
the  already  existing  order.  The  initiative  to  many 
such  movements  in  the  United  States  was  given 

•  The  Review,  June  21,  1919. 


MODERN    INDUSTRIAL    DEMOCRACY         337 

by  the  War  Labor  Board  whose  general  princi- 
ples in  the  shops  conducted  by  it  were : 

That  men  and  management  should  together  and  by  common 
consent  work  out  a  shop-committee  system;  that  this  system 
should  be  adapted  to  the  peculiar  local  needs  of  the  factory  or 
plant;  that  due  proportional  representation  should  be  given  to 
every  group  which,  upon  investigation,  appears  to  be  entitled 
to  it.7 

In  the  same  way  the  Whitley  Report,  adopted 
by  the  British  Government,  sought  to  apply  the 
principle  of  representative  government  to  the 
whole  field  of  industry,  calling  for  joint  industrial 
councils,  national,  district  and  "  works,"  in  which 
labor  and  capital  were  to  be  equally  represented, 
while  the  presidency  of  the  various  councils  was 
to  be  assigned  to  impartial  officers.  It  is  to  be 
observed  also  that  both  workers  and  employers 
are  represented  by  their  unions  or  associations. 
Even  copartnership  plans  themselves  cannot  dis- 
pense with  the  need  of  the  trade  unions,  since  the 
danger  will  always  remain  that  wages  may  be  re- 
duced in  favor  of  dividends.  Thus  the  Labor 
Co-Partnership  Association  of  London,  after  the 
great  railway  strike  of  September,  19 11,  wisely 
issued  the  following  pronouncement: 

Copartnership  assumes  a  standard  wage  before  there  can  be 
any  talk  of  profit  to  divide.  A  standard  wage  assumes  organ- 
ization to  maintain  it  and  to  raise  it.  It  assumes  reasonable 
forms  of  trade  unionism,  collective  bargaining,  the  meeting  of 
capital  and  labor.^ 

''  The  Survey,  June  7,  1919. 
•Williams,  op.  cit.,  p.  207. 


338  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

The  democratization  of  industry  does  not  im- 
ply the  disappearance  of  all  previous  economic 
institutions.  Cooperative  and  copartnership  ar- 
rangements, public  ownership,  individually  con- 
ducted enterprises  and  private  corporations  will 
continue  side  by  side,  as  shall  be  demanded  for 
the  common  good.  But  labor's  increasing  share 
in  ownership  and  responsibility  will  be  the  surest 
safeguard  of  lasting  industrial  peace.  On  the 
other  hand  the  legal  restrictions  placed  upon  the 
acquisition  of  excessive  fortunes  through  just 
methods  of  graded  taxation,  whose  purpose  is  not 
confiscation,  but  the  public  good,  will  greatly  re- 
duce the  former  inequalities,  and  the  envy  and 
discontent  to  which  they  gave  birth.  Bidding 
us  look  with  him  into  the  future  a  recent  writer 
asks: 

Does  It  please  you  to  contemplate  a  future  in  which  one  boy 
or  girl  out  of  ten  may  "  rise "  to  a  condition  of  independence 
and  dignity,  while  the  other  nine  must  remain  dependent  for  their 
living  upon  the  hiring  and  firing  process,  with  no  interest  in 
the  work  by  which  they  live  except  such  as  can  be  enclosed  in 
the  pay-envelope?  Or  would  you  rather  contemplate  a  future 
in  which  the  range  of  jobs  that  have  been  emancipated  from 
the  status  of  wage-slavery  [i.  e.,  the  exclusive  dependence  upon 
wages  and  denial  of  all  partnership  in  responsibility]  is  coex- 
tensive with  the  field  of  industry?  That  is  the  issue  reduced  to 
its  essentials.^ 

Finally  it  is  necessary  that  the  burden  of  eco- 

»  The  Neiu  Republic,  June  7,  1919. 


MODERN   INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACY         339 

nomic  betterment  of  the  worker,  where  this  is  rea- 
sonably called  for,  or  the  just  taxation  of  incomes, 
be  not  placed  upon  the  consumer,  so  that  every 
increase  in  wages  or  taxation  may  not  be  accom- 
panied by  a  rise  in  prices.  This  can  be  brought 
about,  on  the  one  hand,  by  the  various  methods 
which  enable  the  worker  to  share  in  the  profit 
and  responsibility  of  the  business  and  hence  in- 
crease his  productivity,  and  on  the  other  by  keep- 
ing profits  and  taxation  within  reasonable  limits. 
The  worker,  too,  must  act  upon  conscientious  mo- 
tives, be  satisfied  with  wages  that  the  industry  can 
bear  without  burdening  the  consumer,  and  give 
his  fair  energies  through  a  period  of  time  that  is 
not  abnormally  shortened.  These  are  principles 
the  gildsmen  held  sacred,  and  that  must  be  revived 
again  in  modern  industry,  if  it  is  ever  to  be  truly 
democratized.  The  home,  too,  must  be  kept  in- 
violate, as  well  as  the  mother's  place  in  it  with  her 
little  ones.  This  will  reduce  the  problem  of  un- 
employment, and  make  possible  adequate  wages, 
based  on  increased  productivity,  such  as  should 
certainly  result  from  real  industrial  cooperation. 

The  large  corporations  themselves  were  in  a 
manner  democratized  long  ago  by  the  thousands, 
and  even  tens  of  thousands,  of  small  investors  who 
brought  together  into  them  their  joint  savings. 
But  their  management  did  not  so  readily  change 
its  autocratic  nature.  The  small  shareholder  was 
to  be  satisfied  with  his  dividend  check  and  blindly 


340  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

vote  *'  proxies."  To  protect  him,  therefore,  from 
gambling,  frenzied  finance  and  outright  spoliation, 
as  Victor  S.  Yarros  suggests,  "  publicity,  demo- 
cratic control,  directorates  of  a  new  type,  will  be 
found  increasingly  necessary."  If  the  small  in- 
vestor can  not  protect  himself,  the  State  must  do 
so ;  for  as  the  writer  correctly  says,  the  only  mean 
between  reactionary  Bourbonism  and  Bolshevism 
is  democratic  industry.  The  Church  had  discov- 
ered this  centuries  ago  and  consistently  acted 
upon  it. 

The  emphasis  throughout  this  chapter  has  been 
placed  upon  self-help.  It  is  the  Socialistic  fallacy 
to  depend  entirely  upon  the  State,  by  surrender- 
ing land  and  industry  to  it,  and  thus  establishing  a 
new  and  worse  autocracy  in  place  of  the  old.  It 
is  on  the  other  hand  the  mistake  of  many  more 
judicious  minds,  who  rightly  look  instead  for  a 
wider  distribution  of  productive  property  among 
the  workers  themselves,  to  seek  to  attain  this  end 
by  legislative  measures  almost  exclusively.  The 
lesson  of  the  gilds  can  here  again  be  of  service. 
They  accomplished  their  success  through  perfect 
cooperation  with  the  municipal  or  State  govern- 
ment, seeking  first  and  foremost  the  common  good. 

It  is  well  that  there  should  be  State  regulation 
protecting  the  small  investor  and  discriminating  in 
his  favor,  within  all  just  limits.  It  is  well  that 
the  burden  of  taxation  should  bear  increasingly 
upon  those  who  accumulate  shares  in  their  own  in- 


MODERN   INDUSTRIAL   DEMOCRACY         34 1 

dividual  hands,  whether  from  one  or  from  many 
corporations.  It  is  well  that  there  should  be  thus 
created  the  widest  just  distribution  of  voting  stock 
among  the  people.  It  is  well,  too,  that  the  manip- 
ulations of  speculators  should  forever  be  made 
impossible  by  a  relentless  publicity  and  by  ade- 
quate legal  action.  But  the  first  step  towards  a 
true  democratic  industry  is  self-help  on  the  part 
of  labor  and  of  the  many  sincere  employers  who 
are  eager  to  promote  the  new  democratic  indus- 
try that  alone  can  give  social  stability  —  provided 
always  that  the  principles  of  the  Church  are  not 
forgotten,  on  which  every  sound  social  order  must 
be  based. 


A  CATHOLIC  SOCIAL  PLATFORM 


A  CATHOLIC  SOCIAL  PLATFORM 

PREAMBLE 

1.  True  modern  democracy  first  arose  beneath 
the  fostering  care  of  the  Church,  derived  its  prin- 
ciples from  the  great  Catholic  thinkers  of  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  found  its  expression  in  many  of  the 
early  Catholic  city-democracies,  was  actively  main- 
tained in  its  rights  of  self-government  during  the 
wars  of  the  twelfth  century  by  Pope  Alexander 
III,  has  been  continuously  exemplified  since  the 
thirteenth  century  in  the  Catholic  cantons  of  Swit- 
zerland, and  was  most  brilliantly  defended  in  the 
theological  schools  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
The  Reformation  doctrine  of  the  Divine  right  of 
kings  was  ever  strenuously  opposed  by  the  Church. 
(£)./.,  XXVI.)  1 

2.  All  true  democracy,  as  an  embodiment  of  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  must  be  based  on  the  funda- 
mental doctrine  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God.      {D. 

3.  Its  aim  is  not  the  abolition  of  classes,  from 

1  At  the  end  of  the  various  clauses,  "  fV.  P."  stands  for  "  The 
World  Problem"  (P.  J.  Kenedy  &  Sons,  New  York,  and  R.  & 
T.  Washbourne,  London),  while  the  numerals  following  indicate 
the  respective  chapters.  "  D.  I."  similarly  refers  to  "  Democratic 
Industry"   (same  publishers). 

345 


346  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

which  universal  happiness  is  vainly  expected  by 
some  to  flow.  It  freely  acknowledges  "  the  di- 
versity of  gifts  that  man  receives,  with  the  conse- 
quent inevitable  difference  in  position,  learning, 
acquirements  and  possessions  which  have  ever 
characterized,  and  must  always  characterize  the 
members  of  the  human  race."  (Cardinal 
Bourne.) 

4.  The  perfect  social  ideal  is  found  only  in  the 
Christian  cooperation  of  all  classes  and  of  all  in- 
dividuals, as  members  of  one  social  body,  under 
the  governance  of  lawfully  appointed  authority, 
whose  power,  however  conferred  by  the  people, 
is  ultimately  derived  from  God.      {PF.  P.,  XXV.) 

5.  Democracy  in  education  took  its  beginning  in 
the  great  system  of  public  schools  created  by  the 
Church  (Third  and  Fourth  Lateran  Councils, 
II 79  and  12 15)  and  in  the  vast  medieval  univer- 
sities fostered  by  her,  with  their  gilds  of  masters 
and  scholars.       (Z). /.,  XXIII.) 

6.  With  the  "  Great  Pillage,"  the  suppression 
of  monasteries  and  the  confiscation  of  gild  funds 
devoted  to  religion  and  charity,  pauperism  arose 
for  the  first  time.  The  one  power  that  by  its  very 
teaching  and  influence,  as  exemplified  in  the  gilds 
at  their  perfection,  could  have  preserved  the  work- 
ing classes  from  the  degradation  to  which  they 
were  subjected,  was  set  aside.  Hence  the  "  ra- 
pacious usury  "  that  followed,  so  that,  as  Pope 
Leo  XIII  described  the  conditions  existing  in  his 


A   CATHOLIC    SOCIAL   PLATFORM  347 

own  day:  "A  small  number  of  very  rich  men 
have  been  able  to  lay  upon  the  teeming  masses 
of  the  laboring  poor  a  yoke  little  better  than  slav- 
ery itself."      (R.N.^)      (D. /.,  XXVII.) 

7.  The  chief  aim  of  Christian  social  endeavor, 
or  "  Christian  Democracy,"  is,  in  the  words  of  the 
same  Pontiff :  "  To  make  the  condition  of  those 
who  toil  more  tolerable;  to  enable  them  to  ob- 
tain, little  by  little,  those  means  by  which  they 
may  provide  for  the  future ;  to  help  them  to  prac- 
tice in  public  and  in  private  the  duties  which  mo- 
rality and  religion  inculcate;  to  aid  them  to  feel 
that  they  are  not  animals  but  men,  not  heathens 
but  Christians,  and  so  to  enable  them  to  strive 
more  zealously  and  eagerly  for  the  one  thing 
which  is  necessary:  the  ultimate  good  for  which  we 
are  all  born  into  this  world."  {R.  N.)  What 
doth  it  profit  a  man  if  he  gain  the  whole  world  and 
suffer  the  loss  of  his  own  soul.  (Matt,  xvi:  26.) 
{fV.  P.,  XXV;  D.  I.,  XXVIII.) 

FALSE   SOCIAL   SYSTEMS 

8.  Socialism  is  no  solution  for  the  evils  which 
have  followed  the  Reformation.  Far  from  satis- 
fying the  legitimate  desire  of  the  worker  for  a 
personal  share  in  productive  ownership,  it  would 
ultimately  deprive  all  alike  of  such  ownership,  sub- 
jecting the  laborer  hopelessly  to  a  bureaucratic 

^"Rerum  Novarum,"  the  Encyclical  of  Pope  Leo  XIII,  "On 
the  Condition  of  the  Working  Classes,"  issued  in  1891. 


348  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

control,  both  tyrannical  and  inefficient.  Social- 
ism is  more  or  less  complete  in  proportion  as  it 
aims  at  this  abolition  of  private  productive  own- 
ership.     {W.P.,  llhD.L,  IV.) 

9.  Individualistic  capitalism,  understood  as  a 
system  in  which  the  means  of  production  are  in  the 
hands  of  a  few  men  of  wealth,  inspired  merely 
with  a  passion  for  the  utmost  gain  and  unre- 
strained by  due  legal  restrictions,  is  equally  per- 
nicious.     (/F.  P.,  IV,  XXI.) 

CHRISTIAN   DEMOCRACY 

10.  The  Church  of  Christ  has  not  been  founded 
to  teach  any  particular  system  of  sociology  or  eco- 
nomics. She  condemns  whatever  is  morally  false 
in  the  existing  practices  or  theories  and  commends 
whatever  form  of  social  order,  based  upon  the  nat- 
ural law  and  the  Gospel,  wisely  answers  the  needs 
of  any  given  period.  She  is  not  for  any  single 
generation  but  for  all  time,  while  economic  condi- 
tions are  fluctuating  perpetually.  {JV.  P.,  XVII; 
D.  /.,  V-VIII,  etc.) 

1 1.  Yet  it  is  the  duty  of  Christians,  particularly 
at  the  present  moment,  not  to  overlook  the  social 
dangers  that  imperil  civilization;  and  it  is  possible 
for  them  to  build  up  on  her  principles,  teachings 
and  traditions  a  true  system  of  democratic  indus- 
try which  shall  answer  all  the  needs  of  their  day. 
On  no  other  foundation  can  a  sound  social  order 
be  erected. 


A    CATHOLIC   SOCIAL    PLATFORM  349 

12.  Equally  opposed  to  the  unnatural  abolition 
of  private  productive  ownership  under  Socialism, 
and  to  its  restriction  to  a  few  men  of  wealth  under 
capitalism,  the  true  social  system  advocates  instead 
the  widest  diffusion  of  the  possession  of  productive 
as  well  as  of  private  property,  that  as  many  as 
possible  of  the  workers  can  hope,  by  just  means, 
to  become  sharers  in  it.  And  this  personally,  and 
not  merely  in  the  name  of  a  communistic  common- 
wealth.     (W.  P.,  XVIII ;  D.  /.,  I,  XIX,  etc.) 

13.  Such  possession  will  satisfy  the  aspirations 
of  men,  lift  them  above  the  position  of  wage-earn- 
ers only,  and  help  to  their  full  and  harmonious  de- 
velopment, insuring  the  stability  of  the  new  social 
order.      (D. /.,  XXIX,  XXX.) 

14.  Such  was  the  consummation  most  closely 
attained  when  Catholic  gildhood  was  in  its  prime 
and  the  influence  of  the  Church  effective;  when 
the  apprentice  might  hope,  by  industry,  skill  and 
virtue,  to  become  a  master;  when  social  discon- 
tent was  unknown  and  pauperism  undreamed  of; 
when  each  lived  for  all  and  all  for  each.  Such 
is  the  Catholic  ideal.  {D.  I.,  XVIII-XXII, 
XXV.) 

DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

15.  The  old  organizations  cannot  be  restored  as 
they  were.  But  it  is  possible,  in  the  words  of 
Pius  X:  "To  adapt  them  to  the  new  situation 
created  by  the  material  evolution  of  contemporary 


2 so  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

society  in  the  same  Christian  spirit  which  of  old 
inspired  them."      (Z).  /.,  XXVIII.) 

1 6.  Such,  in  a  material  way,  are  the  cooperative 
trade,  credit  and  agricultural  societies  intended  for 
self-help  and  to  eliminate  a  wasteful  system  of  dis- 
tribution. Such  are  the  attempts  at  cooperative 
production,  where  the  entire  enterprise  is  owned 
by  the  workers  who  alone  receive  both  wage  and 
profit,  and  where  each  worker  is  personal  owner 
of  shares  and  participates,  directly  or  indirectly, 
in  the  management.  {fF.  P.,  XIX,  XX;  D.  I., 
XXIX,  XXX.) 

17.  Such,  too,  though  less  completely,  are  the 
various  plans  in  which  the  workers  own  a  consid- 
erable part  of  the  voting  stock.  And  such  in  fine, 
to  a  greater  or  less  degree,  are  all  copartnership 
arrangements  by  which  the  workers  share  in  the 
corporate  stock  and  reasonably  participate  in  the 
industrial  management:  the  regulation,  through 
their  shop  gilds,  of  hours,  wages,  discipline,  proc- 
esses of  production,  etc.  {fV.  P.,  XIX;  D.  I., 
XVIII.) 

18.  Since  every  business  is  constituted  of  money- 
capital  and  labor-capital,  it  is  unreasonable  that 
the  former  alone,  as  under  capitalism,  should  have 
the  entire  power  of  control  and  the  latter  be  sub- 
jected to  a  state  of  complete  dependence.  Men 
are  more  than  money,  and  persons  more  precious 
than  machinery.      {D.  /.,  XVIII,  etc.) 

19.  But  for  the  lasting  success  of  any  economic 


A    CATHOLIC   SOCIAL   PLATFORM  35 1 

plans,  religion  is  essential.  The  gilds  were  able  to 
maintain  their  spirit  of  democratic  industry  in  pro- 
portion only  to  their  religious  zeal.  With  this 
they  waxed  or  waned.  Without  certain  disaster, 
religion  can  never  be  dissociated  from  economics. 
(D.  /.,  XIV,  XXVII.) 

THE   PUBLIC   GOOD 

20.  While  keeping  clearly  in  sight  this  vision  of 
the  true  city,  which  is  to  be  constructed  after  no 
merely  speculative  model,  we  must  not  forget  the 
intermediate  measures  that  are  not,  however,  to  be 
confounded  with  the  ultimate  goal. 

21.  Adequate  government  regulation  should 
prevent  the  accumulation  of  excessive  gains  in  the 
hands  of  a  few,  the  monopolistic  control  of  com- 
modities, and  the  abuses  that  may  arise  in  such 
public  service  monopolies  as  are  under  private  op- 
eration.     (D. /.,  XII.) 

22.  Monopolies  or  combines  are  guilty  of  injus- 
tice when  in  the  articles  of  common  use  they  ex- 
ceed the  highest  prices,  that  would  obtain  in  the 
market  were  it  freely  open  to  competition,  presum- 
ing in  each  instance  the  previous  payment  of  a  just 
wage.  They  may  offend  against  charity  by  not 
lowering  this  price  as  well  when  notable  hardship 
is  inflicted  upon  the  poor.  All  "  cornering  "  must 
be  prevented  absolutely  and  all  unfair  business 
methods.      {W.  P.,  V,  VI.) 

23.  State  ownership  should  not  be  introduced 


352  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

where  State  control  suffices.  The  farther  an  in- 
dustry is  removed  from  a  public  service  utility  or 
a  natural  monopoly,  the  greater  the  presumption 
in  favor  of  private  ownership,  cooperative  or  oth- 
erwise.     (;^.  P.,  XVIII.) 

24.  Since  it  is  the  duty  of  the  State  to  see  that 
natural  resources  are  turned  to  good  account  for 
the  support  and  welfare  of  all  the  people,  *'  the 
State  or  municipality  should  acquire,  always  for 
compensation,  those  agencies  of  production,  and 
those  agencies  only,  in  which  the  public  interest 
demands  that  public  property  rather  than  private 
ownership  should  exist."  (Irish  Bishops,  19 14.) 
{W.P.,  III,  XXI.) 

25.  Unjust  restrictions  should  not  be  placed  on 
those,  who  to  the  general  benefit  are  acquiring 
legitimate  prosperity  under  private  enterprise. 
{W.  P.,  XVIII.) 

26.  Taxation  should  bear  most  upon  those  who 
are  able  to  contribute  most  to  the  common  good, 
but  should  not  be  made  a  means  of  confiscation. 
Special  protection  should  be  given  to  the  small 
share-holder  and  a  wider  diffusion  of  shares  made 
possible,  within  the  limits  of  justice.  The  words 
of  Pope  Leo  XIII  must  be  borne  in  mind :  "  The 
right  to  possess  private  property  is  derived  from 
nature,  not  from  man;  and  the  State  has  the  right 
to  control  its  use  in  the  interest  of  the  public  good, 
but  by  no  means  to  absorb  it  altogether.  The 
State  would  therefore  be  unjust  and  cruel  if  under 


A   CATHOLIC   SOCIAL   PLATFORM  353 

the  name  of  taxation  it  were  to  deprive  the  private 
owner  of  more  than  is  fitting."  {R.  N.)  {JV. 
P.,  XXL) 

LABOR   MEASURES 

27.  Until  a  larger  social  justice  reigns,  mini- 
mum wage  laws  must  enable  every  male  worker 
to  support  a  family  in  Christian  decency.  Every 
adult  woman  worker  must  be  enabled  to  live  re- 
spectably by  her  earnings  alone.  Enough  should 
gradually  be  paid  to  make  it  possible  for  every 
worker  to  provide  for  the  future  out  of  his  or  her 
own  wages,  without  need  of  State  insurance.  In 
this  way  only  can  industry  be  said  to  be  properly 
supporting  those  engaged  in  it.      {W.  P.,  IX.) 

28.  As  exceptional  business  enterprise  and  effi- 
ciency, directed  towards  the  greater  common  good, 
is  entitled  to  an  exceptional  reward,  so  labor  also 
should  be  remunerated  in  proportion  to  its  con- 
tribution to  industry. 

29.  By  workers  we  understand  all  engaged  in 
mental  as  well  as  in  manual  occupations,  in  the 
service  of  distribution  or  production,  from  man- 
ager to  messenger,  although  the  need  of  State  pro- 
tection for  the  former  may  be  insignificant. 

30.  As  the  State  must  come  to  the  aid  of  the 
consumer  in  as  far  as  the  general  welfare  requires, 
so  too  it  must  safeguard  labor's  rights;  religious, 
moral,  physical  and  economic.  In  like  manner 
the  rights  of  every  class  must  be  duly  protected 


354  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

by  it  to  whatever  extent  the  common  good  de- 
mands.     (IF.  P.,  VIII.) 

31.  The  duty  of  labor  is  to  give  a  fair  day's 
work,  as  the  duty  of  the  employer  is  to  provide 
a  fair  wage  and  proper  working  conditions,  from 
a  religious  and  moral,  as  well  as  from  a  material 
and  sanitary  point  of  view.      {JV.  P.,  X.) 

32.  Strikes  are  permitted  for  a  grave  and  just 
cause,  when  there  is  a  hope  of  success  and  no  other 
satisfactory  solution  can  be  found,  when  justice 
and  charity  are  preserved,  and  the  rights  of  the 
public  duly  respected.  Conciliation,  arbitration 
and  trade  agreements  are  the  natural  means  to  be 
suggested  in  their  stead.  Hence  the  utility  of 
public  boards  for  this  purpose.  As  in  the  strike, 
so  in  the  lock-out,  a  serious  and  just  cause  is  re- 
quired, and  the  rights  of  the  workers  and  of  the 
public  must  be  respected.  Charity  is  far  more 
readily  violated  in  the  lock-out  than  in  the  strike, 
because  of  the  greater  suffering  likely  to  be  in- 
flicted on  the  laborer  deprived  of  his  work  than 
on  the  employer.      {JV.  P.,  XI.) 

33.  Justification  of  the  sympathetic  strike  will 
rarely  be  found,  while  the  presumption  is  over- 
whelmingly against  the  general  sympathetic  strike. 
{W.  P.,  XII.)  Blacklists  on  the  part  of  em- 
ployers that  permanently  exclude  from  his  trade 
a  worker  displeasing  to  them,  who  honestly  seeks 
employment,  are  opposed  to  the  first  principles  of 
justice. 


A    CATHOLIC    SOCIAL    PLATFORM  355 

34.  The  problem  of  unemployment  should  be 
met  by  a  permanent  national  employment  service, 
acting  with  the  cooperation  of  municipal  and  pri- 
vate bureaus.  Methods  of  preventing  or  meeting 
the  crisis  of  unemployment  should  be  carefully 
studied.  Governments  have  a  serious  duty  to  ob- 
viate this  evil,  and  provide  for  the  unemployed 
according  to  their  necessity.  {W.  P.,  XIII, 
XIV.) 

2S-  Hours  of  labor  should  be  neither  unrea- 
sonably long  nor  unreasonably  short.  Sunday  la- 
bor should  be  prohibited,  except  in  cases  of  real 
necessity,  such  as  is  too  often  merely  presumed  to 
exist.      {PF.  P.,  VIII;  D.  /.,  XIX,  XX.) 

36.  Until  labor  can  properly  provide  for  itself, 
the  State  should  interest  itself  in  housing  condi- 
tions, particularly  where  there  is  danger  to  mor- 
als and  religion  as  well  as  to  the  physical  well- 
being  of  the  worker  and  of  his  family.  Health 
inspection  in  the  schools  and  municipal  clinics 
for     the     poor     are     recommended.      (/F.     P., 

11.) 

37.  Vocational  training  is  desirable,  without 
neglecting  the  cultural  and  religious  education  of 
our  children.  "  A  healthy  democracy  cannot  tol- 
erate a  purely  industrial  or  trade  education  for  any 
class  of  its  citizens."  Further,  "  the  opportunities 
of  the  system  should  be  extended  to  all  qualified 
private  schools  on  exactly  the  same  basis  as  to  the 
public  schools.     We  want  neither  class  divisions 


356  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

in  education  nor  a  State  monopoly  of  education." 
(American  Bishops.)      {D.  /.,  XXI.) 

38.  So  long  as  proper  wages  are  not  accorded, 
social  insurance  is  to  be  favored  to  whatever  ex- 
tent may  be  necessary  to  safeguard  the  laborer 
in  sickness,  accident,  invalidity  and  old  age.  It 
must  be  clearly  understood,  however,  that  there  is 
question  of  a  temporary  substitute  only  for  an  ade- 
quate wage,  which  will  enable  the  worker  to  carry 
his  own  insurance  and  not  to  be  a  mere  ward  of  the 
State.  The  dignity  of  labor  must  be  protected 
from  communistic  paternalism  as  well  as  from  cap- 
italistic abuses.      {W.  P.,  XVII;  D.  I.,  IV.) 

39.  An  intelligent  penal  system  will  make  it 
possible  for  dependents  to  live  upon  the  earnings 
of  the  imprisoned  wage-earner.  It  may  also  en- 
able the  prisoner  to  lay  aside  something  for  future 
rehabilitation.      {W.  P.,  XVIL), 

40.  The  right  of  labor  organization  is  no 
longer  in  question  and  never  should  have  been. 
The  worker  should  see  that  Christian  principles 
are  maintained  within  his  union  and  not  permit  it, 
through  his  own  carelessness,  to  be  made  the 
helpless  tool  of  extremists.      {W.  P.,  XVI;  D.  L, 

in.) 

41.  It  is  therefore  of  the  highest  importance 
that  Christian  social  education  through  organiza- 
tion and  literature,  be  extended  to  every  single  one 
of  our  own  labor  unionists.  Hence  also  the  im- 
perative need  of  Christian  schools  of  sociology  for 


A    CATHOLIC   SOCIAL   PLATFORM  357 

the  training  of  Christian  social  leaders.      {JV.  P., 
XVI,  XXV.) 

WOMAN    LABOR 

42.  Exploitation  of  woman  and  child  labor  is  to 
be  strictly  abolished,  as  well  as  every  other  form 
of  sweating.      ( W.  P.,  XXII,  XXIII,  XXIV. ) 

43.  While  woman  in  industry  is  to  receive  a 
minimum  wage  sufficient  for  her  own  support,  it 
is  reasonable  that  she  should  moreover  be  paid 
according  to  her  service.  This  will  imply  an 
equal  wage  with  man  for  work  equal  in  quantity 
and  quality,  when  engaged  at  the  same  task  with 
him.      {W.  P.,  XXIII.) 

44.  If  wife  and  mother  are  no  longer  driven 
to  the  factory,  owing  to  the  husband's  inadequate 
wage,  and  child  labor  is  ended,  there  will  be  work 
for  the  fathers  of  families  as  well  as  for  all  men 
and  women  who  must  provide  their  own  support. 
So  too  a  widowed  mother's  pension,  to  be  paid 
as  far  as  necessary,  will  keep  both  mother  and 
children  in  the  home.      (PF.  P.,  XVII.) 

45.  "  Woman,"  says  Leo  XIII,  "  is  by  nature 
fitted  for  home-work,  and  it  is  this  which  is  best 
adapted  to  her  modesty  and  to  promote  the  good 
up-bringing  of  children  and  the  well-being  of  the 
family."  {R.  N.)  "  The  proportion  of  women 
in  industry  ought  to  be  kept  within  the  smallest 
practical  limits."  (American  Bishops.)  They 
should   not   be    placed   at   occupations   unfit,    or 


358  DEMOCRATIC    INDUSTRY 

morally  and  physically  dangerous;  it  is  the  duty 
of  the  State  to  ensure  this  right  for  them  and  to 
secure  for  them  reasonable  hours,  sanitary  condi- 
tions, abolition  of  night  work,  and  the  removal  of 
all  circumstances  injurious  to  sex  and  maternity. 
{fV,  P.,  XXIV.) 

FARM   LABOR 

46.  Every  just  encouragement  is  to  be  given 
to  promote  farm  labor  and  the  development  of  a 
large  class  of  small  farm  owners.  {JV.  P.,  XV; 
£)./.,  VIII.) 

47.  Cooperative  buying,  selling  and  credit  as- 
sociations, and  cooperative  production  are  here  to 
be  particularly  recommended  as  thoroughly  ap- 
proved by  experience.  All  abuses  in  transporta- 
tion, working  equal  hardship  on  the  producer  and 
consumer,  must  be  removed,  and  produce  brought 
to  the  market  with  the  least  intervention  of  middle- 
men.     {W.  P.,  XIX,  XX,  VII;  £)./.,  XIII.) 

48.  Government  loans  should  be  made,  where 
needed,  to  enable  men  to  settle  upon  the  land, 
either  as  owners  or  as  tenants  with  long-time 
leases.  *'  It  is  essential  that  both  the  work  of 
preparation  and  the  subsequent  settlement  of  the 
land  should  be  effected  by  groups  or  colonies,  not 
by  men  living  independently  of  one  another  and  in 
depressing  isolation."  (American  Bishops.) 
Attention  should  be  given  in  particular  to  the  fa- 
cilities   of    regularly    fulfilling    religious    duties. 


A   CATHOLIC   SOCIAL   PLATFORM  359 

The  problem  of  the  farm  laborer,  too,  is  to  be 
carefully  studied.      (/F.  P.,  XV.) 

49.  The  principle  of  land  nationalization  is  to 
be  strongly  condemned  as  unnatural,  economically 
ruinous  and  undemocratic.  The  rights  of  the 
tiller  to  his  soil  must  be  held  sacred.  Keeping  in- 
violate all  just  property  rights,  the  laborer  should 
"  be  encouraged  to  look  forward  to  obtaining  a 
share  in  the  land."  (Leo  XIII,  R.  N.)  {JV, 
P.,  XVIII.) 

CAUSES   OF   SOCIAL  DISASTER 

50.  The  roots  of  the  social  problem  penetrate 
deep.  The  evils  of  impurity,  birth  control  and 
divorce  corrupt  the  individual,  the  home  and  so- 
ciety. With  these  are  associated  the  inordinate 
craving  after  pleasure,  the  shirking  of  duty,  and 
the  wide-spread  wastefulness  and  excess  of  all 
classes,  together  with  a  desire  for  the  utmost  gain, 
regardless  of  the  common  good.  {W.  P.,  II, 
XI ;/)./.,  IX.) 

51.  These  evils,  which  naturally  flow  from  a 
rejection  of  religion,  are  most  intimately  connected 
with  all  our  economic  and  social  disorders,  whose 
last  cause  is  godlessness.      {JV.  P.,  XIV.) 

52.  Finally,  there  is  the  doctrine  that  would 
make  of  the  State  a  fetish  to  which  all  human 
rights,  whether  of  the  family  or  of  the  individual, 
are  to  be  relentlessly  sacrificed.  Hence  follow 
State  autocracy,  bureaucracy.  Socialism  and  all  the 


360  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

endless  forms  of  State  paternalism  that  threaten 
to  submerge  democracy.  {D.  I.,  I,  IV,  XXVI, 
XXIX,  etc.) 

FIRST   PRINCIPLES 

53.  The  sacredness  of  all  human  life  must  be 
recognized,  and  the  duty  of  conforming  it  to  the 
Will  of  God. 

54.  The  purity  of  family  life  must  be  restored, 
and  the  family,  as  the  unit  of  society,  must  bravely 
assume  its  duties  and  responsibilities  in  a  true 
Christian  spirit.  The  future  belongs  to  those  who 
safeguard  the  home. 

55.  The  pagan  theory  that  the  individual  exists 
for  the  State  and  not  the  State  for  the  individual, 
must  be  absolutely  rejected. 

56.  Secularization  of  education  must  be  op- 
posed as  the  greatest  danger  to  modern  society, 
together  with  all  over-centralization  and  undue 
State  interference,  as  tending  to  establish  the  most 
pernicious  of  all  autocracies.  To  the  parent  alone, 
and  not  to  the  State,  belongs,  of  itself  and  di- 
rectly, the  responsibility  for  the  upbringing  of  the 
child. 

57.  The  safe-guarding  of  the  just  rights  of 
Christianity,  on  which  the  future  of  civilization 
depends,  is  not  possible  without  the  development 
of  a  strong,  alert,  loyal  and  intelligent  Christian 
press.  The  support  and  furtherance  of  this  is  a 
first  duty.     The  law,  on  the  other  hand,  should  be 


A   CATHOLIC   SOCIAL   PLATFORM  36 1 

made  to  prevent  the  publication  of  untrue  state- 
ments and  reports,  and  protect  from  slander  all, 
whether  individually  or  collectively. 

58.  The  success  of  Christian  Democracy,  which 
Is  purely  social  and  not  political,  will  finally  depend 
upon  the  utmost  organization  and  concentration  of 
effort.  Nor  should  Catholics  neglect  the  full  use 
of  their  political  rights  in  the  measure  in  which 
they  are  granted  to  every  citizen,  since  by  reason 
of  their  Divine  Faith  they  "  may  prove  themselves 
capable,  as  much  as,  and  even  more  than  others, 
of  cooperating  in  the  material  and  civil  well-being 
of  the  people,  thus  acquiring  that  authority  and 
respect  which  may  make  it  even  possible  for  them 
to  defend  and  promote  a  higher  good,  namely,  that 
of  the  soul."  (Pius  X.  "  Christian  Social  Ac- 
tion.") 

CONCLUSION 

59.  Besides  the  rules  of  social  justice,  the  laws 
of  Christian  charity  should  bind  together  employer 
and  employees,  and  all  classes  and  ranks,  into  one 
Christian  brotherhood.  To  accomplish  this  in  its 
perfection,  nothing  can  be  of  greater  importance 
than  that  all  should  heed  again  the  voice  of  that 
Mother  from  whom  the  nations  have  wandered, 
who  begot  them  in  the  unity  of  a  great  Christen- 
dom in  the  ages  of  Catholic  Faith.  Her  teach- 
ings are  the  same  now  as  they  were  in  the  days 
of  the  Apostles,  and  as  they  will  remain  to  the 


362  DEMOCRATIC   INDUSTRY 

end  of  time,  yet  always  perfectly  adapted  to  every 
changing  period  of  history.  For  the  promise  of 
Christ  to  her  can  never  be  made  void :  "  Behold 
I  am  with  you  all  days,  even  to  the  consummation 
of  the  world."  (Matt.  xxviii:20.)  {W.  P., 
XXV.) 

60.  Hence  she  alone  can  never  possibly  mislead 
mankind,  and  there  can  be  no  surer  hope  for  true 
and  lasting  reconstruction  than  the  return  of  all  to 
her,  the  one  and  only  apostolic  Church,  the  Church 
of  our  fathers. 


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